Meet Immortal Game, a startup that wants to turn chess into a web3 game with NFT, play-to-earn rewards, quests, markets and more. Online chess has never been so popular and Immortal Game wants to capitalize on that trend to modernize the game.
The company raised $15.5 million across two rounds, including a $12 million round in July. With this Series A round, TCG Crypto is leading the round, with Cassius, Greenfield One, Sparkle Ventures, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35V, Blockwall, Kraken Ventures and Spice Capital also participating.
Chess players can now access the Immortal Game platform on beta.immortal.game. After creating an account, you can choose four pieces from your inventory and start playing against others.
These pieces have been designed by Immortal Games and represent traditional pieces, such as pawns, pieces, knights etc. If you win and manage to complete some side quests (such as “Win with at least 1 of my knights left”), you will get a reward.
But there is also a metagame. Special pieces are also NFT with different rarity levels. You can trade them on Immortal Game’s marketplace for ETH. The company also has utility tokens (CMT) which you can get depending on leaderboard rating and governance tokens (IGE).
From that foundation, Immortal Game has ambitious plans with league tournaments and new game modes. Behind the scenes, the company uses Invariant X as its layer 2 solution on top of the Ethereum blockchain.
Thomas Zaepffel, co-founder and CEO of Immortal Game, said: “An inflection point in the adoption of blockchain technology for consumer gaming has been reached. “Chess is a centuries-old game that benefits from this technology, preserving its legacy while attracting a new group of players. We are delighted for the support of 50 Grand Masters as we continue to expand the reach of this incredible game. “
Currently 20 people are working on Immortal Game. The company releases 30 new products every day. Since June 2022, the company has generated 200 ETH with trading volume on its market. There are 50,000 registered players with 5,000 active players per week.
That’s not a lot of people, which means there’s a lot of room to grow. Millions of people play chess on mobile apps and online websites. If Immortal Game convinces a small fraction of those players to try its web3 chess platform, it could be a lucrative business.
