Anichess, the progressive chess-based online strategy game from Animoca Brands, developed in partnership with Chess.com and five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen, announced today that it has launched the public alpha version of its game.
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Additionally, Anichess has partnered with Yield Guild Games (YGG) to distribute the game in Southeast Asia, which represents one of Anichess’ top three regions in terms of registered players.
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The launch and partnership underscore Anichess’ commitment to advancing Web3 gaming in the region through its novel interpretation of one of the world’s oldest and most popular games.
The public alpha version of Anichess introduces players to a unique blend of traditional chess and innovative spell mechanics, delivering an immersive gaming experience. Following the release of player-versus-environment (PvE) spell chess puzzles earlier this year, Anichess players can now engage in player-versus-player (PvP) matches, train against AI-controlled opponents, and unlock new spells through game progression. Anichess now offers players four new game modes: ranked match, quick match, friend match, and bot match. Players can climb the ranks and earn points on the leaderboard based on their performance.
By partnering with YGG, Anichess aims to enhance distribution and onboarding efforts across Southeast Asia, targeting chess players, gaming enthusiasts, and students from schools and universities. To kickstart the partnership and showcase the new PvP functionalities, Anichess and YGG will organize a tournament with qualifying rounds starting in October and culminating in a final to be held during the YGG Play Summit in November in Manila, Philippines. The partnership also involves collaborations with guilds, institutions, and content creators to foster greater engagement and community building throughout the region.
Brian Chan, head of Anichess, said: “We’re excited to launch the next phase of Anichess and invite players to the new player-versus-player experience. Our partnership with YGG expands our reach to a diverse audience across Southeast Asia, a region that is strategically important due to its vibrant gaming and chess communities. Engaging these audiences will help us realize our vision of delivering an engaging, community-centric and decentralized experience to a wide global audience.”
Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games, added: “The Philippines has always had a very active competitive gaming community. Of course, that includes chess. We’re excited to see the YGG community dive into this new take on one of the world’s oldest competitive games.”
Since January 2024, Anichess has welcomed over one million registered wallets while maintaining a player base of 30,000 monthly active players. These players have collectively solved over 50 million puzzles and recorded more than 14 million minutes of total game time.
About Anichess
Anichess is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands focused on developing and advancing decentralized chess through its distinctive spell-chess gameplay. Anichess brings new energy and innovation to one of the world’s oldest and most widely played games, modernizing and tokenizing it to take advantage of opportunities presented by Web3 technologies and communities. Anichess is a completely free-to-play game that combines the core values of traditional chess with an additional layer of strategy provided by new features that include an innovative spell mechanic and special challenges. Anichess boasts a strong focus on powerful visuals and skill-based gameplay to deliver a captivating, esport-like experience for fans of chess and novices alike.
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands (ACN: 122 921 813), a Deloitte Tech Fast winner, a Fortune Crypto 40 company, one of the Top 50 Blockchain Game Companies 2024, and one of the Financial Times’ High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2023, is a Web3 leader that leverages blockchain to deliver digital property rights to consumers around the world to help to establish the open metaverse. The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including original games such as Anichess, The Sandbox, PHANTOM GALAXIES™, Life Beyond, and Crazy Defense Heroes, and products utilizing popular intellectual properties from the worlds of sports and entertainment, such as The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E.
