Animoca Brands-backed Chess Game, Anichess, Raises Funds Led by Sfermion and Amber Group The round was led by Sfermion and Amber Group, with participation from Fenbushi Capital, Aspen Digital, SNZ Capital, and others

On Thursday, Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based game software company and venture capital, announced that its progressive chess-based online strategy game 'Anichess', developed in partnership with Chess.com and five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen, completed a funding round of USD 1.8 million.

The round was led by Sfermion and Amber Group, with participation from Fenbushi Capital, Aspen Digital, SNZ Capital, and others.

"With its popularity, accessibility, and incredible strategic depth, chess is a classic game that has stood the test of time. One of the benefits of a game whose appeal is measured in centuries is the sophistication and passion of its community, and we are thrilled for Anichess to showcase our new and updated interpretation of the game of kings in partnership with Chess.com," said Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman, Animoca Brands.

Anichess is a Web3 gaming project that provides a tactical take on chess by implementing spells that open up new strategies and gameplay, and that require players to rethink the rules of traditional chess as they uncover the expansive lore within the world of the gameboard.

It raised USD 1.5M in the seed round last year. In January, launched its player-versus-environment (PvE) daily chess puzzles. The gaming startup claims to have over 1,000,000 registered players with an active user base of 150,000 daily active users.

"The future of gaming is community-driven and player-owned, and we believe that, with Chess.com's existing community of 150m+ players and Web3 communities such as Mocaverse, Anichess has the potential to onboard tens of millions of players into that future. With the added strategic components and esports-like elements, Anichess aims to keep things fresh by building for the gamers who yearn for the hardest challenges," said Dan Patterson, general partner, Sfermion.

In March, Anichess' Season 1 leaderboard was launched which ranked players based on points accumulated from solving daily puzzles and collecting Orbs of Power obtained through gameplay and participation in social events.

"Anichess represents a refreshing take on one of the most classic games cherished by many generations and we are proud to support the team in realizing their vision of delivering an engaging, community-centric and decentralized player experience. The enthusiastic response to the debut of spell chess puzzles is a testament to the team's execution capability and we look forward to the release of the main game later this year," said Annabelle Huang, managing partner, Amber Group.

Notably, its online player-versus-player (PvP) game mode is expected to launch in Q2 2024.