Anichess has presented a master league, a closed tournament in which the eight best players compete in a chess format using spells. The league is run as a round-robin of five matches, with a prize pool of 100000 CHECK per season and the title of Master, which remains with the player.
Half of the places in the standings are fixed, and half are contested. The top four teams keep their places for the next season, while the bottom four lose them. Each season, four new players take part in the tournament, which means that four of the eight current places will pass to other teams at the end of the season.
The starting lineup has already been determined, formed from participants of three different levels. Ellaigeo and Dreams qualified through the "Road to Magnus Cup." Three places went to the top three playoff teams from Seasons 5 through 7, and the three final places went to the top three playoff teams of Season 9.
This combination means that the first Master League is not simply the result of Season 10. It rewards results achieved over several seasons, giving the league a formed lineup of participants from the very first match, rather than a lineup assembled over a single cycle.
In the league, all matches are played to three wins, so the outcome is not decided by a single game. The standings are determined first by the Berger coefficient, a standard chess tiebreaker that gives greater weight to victories over stronger opponents. If players remain level after that, the place is decided in a playoff to three wins.
Below the master league level are the seasonal playoffs with their own prize pool of 100 000 CHECK. 64 players take part in the playoffs, allocated through several routes. The top 24 players in the standard mode advance to the playoffs, as do the top 24 by seasonal points. Five places are reserved for streamers, five go to titled players by invitation, and six are allocated through tournaments, including the Gambit Series.
The two teams that finish in the top places in the playoffs advance to the master league, so the standings and the playoffs together ensure an influx of new players replacing the bottom four teams each season.
The total prize pool of Season 10 is 300 000 CHECK. It is distributed evenly across three blocks of 100 000, covering the seasonal playoffs, the master league, and seasonal events throughout the calendar.
What is Anichess?
Anichess is a competitive chess game that adds a layer of spells to the classic rules. Both players cast spells, so the balance is preserved and the play on the board becomes less predictable. Spells include beam attacks on the rook, turning pawns in the middlegame, and effects that drain the opponent's mana.
The game was developed by Animoca Brands in an official partnership with Chess.com and has attracted more than a million players. Among those who have played it are grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri, and the Road to Magnus Cup tournament, in which two spots in the Masters League were played out, continues this connection with the competitive calendar.
CHECK is the token underlying the ecosystem. Its limit is 1 billion, of which 59.38% is allocated to the community and ecosystem, and 39.38% to player rewards. Players use it to enter skill-based tournaments, receive performance-based prizes, and purchase cosmetic items, collectibles, and in-game assets; store purchases are still planned. Staking CHECK generates Mate Points, or M8, non-transferable in-game points that unlock progression bonuses, boosts, and exclusive features. Holders also vote on proposals to improve Checkmate through the DAO Council structure as part of a model of progressive decentralization.
The token was announced on November 13, 2025, and Anichess became the first game into which it was integrated. "Integrating the CHECK token into Anichess allows us to align rewards with the most important characteristics of chess: skill and strategic decision-making," said Anichess head Shevan Tin at the time.
A second game, King's Gambit, a chess-style roguelike survival game for mobile and web platforms, is planned for release.
At the end of Season 10, the Masters League standings were updated, and four of the eight current place holders lost their positions.
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