In Brief:
- Anichess (official site) has asked its community to opt in to a migration of M8 points — the opening move in returning the game to Base.
- According to the game, the opt-in is handled on the Anichess homepage and wraps up in under a minute.
- Because M8 is the key to Anichess’s competitive modes and is accumulated by playing Standard matches or staking $CHECK, those balances matter.
The road back to Base begins with player points.
“Back to @base we go, mates,” the game wrote in a post on X. “First step: your M8 migration.”
Back to @base we go, mates.
First step: your M8 migration.
Head to Anichess homepage and opt-in, takes less than a minute.@AnichessView on X ↗
The opt-in itself lives on the Anichess homepage and, per the studio, needs less than a minute of a player’s time. No deadline was attached to the request, nor did Anichess specify which other pieces of the ecosystem will follow the points across.
What M8 does
M8 serves as the onchain points layer for the game. It is not a token, and there is no way to purchase it.
Earning it means finishing 15 Standard matches in a week — with the payout scaled to rating class — or staking $CHECK. Claims open at 08:00 UTC. Any M8 left unclaimed piles up, and while weekend claims may arrive late, they remain valid for a 24-hour stretch.
Competitive play sits behind those points as well. Spending M8 secures a seat in Checkmate Arena, which draws 50 players at random every week and pays each of them at least 500 $CHECK.
Base, then Abstract, now Base again
M8 originally launched on Base back in April 2025, pitched by the studio as the onchain layer that pays off consistent play. Whatever players banked during Season 3 — the public alpha attached to a Yield Guild Games distribution deal — was converted into M8 without any manual step.
The arrival of a token is what split the stack. $CHECK became the game’s native token on Nov. 13, 2025, at the end of a phased rollout that kicked off Nov. 12. Staking, claims, M8 accrual and the early $CHECK mechanics all moved to Abstract, while Base retained liquidity and trading via Aerodrome Finance — meaning players had to bridge from Abstract to Base in order to trade or supply liquidity. Meanwhile, the Ethernals NFT collection remained on Ethereum.
Abstract was also the venue for the Pudgy Takeover, promoted as the first major Anichess event on that network. The event introduced a PenguBoard mode along with a PenguBlast spell, dangled as much as 600,000 $PENGU in prizes and limited tournament entry to players logged in via Abstract Global Wallet.
Where the token stands
Supply for $CHECK is capped at 1 billion, of which 59.38% is earmarked for ecosystem growth and player rewards. The token became live and tradable on Coinbase on April 2, 2026, and climbed more than 70% once listings on BingX Alpha and additional exchanges landed. Its all-time high of $0.1076 came on March 5, 2026, at a circulating supply of roughly 412.57 million.
For holders, the token covers tournament entry, staking that produces M8, in-game purchases and governance via Checkmate Improvement Proposals. Public and OG pools handle the staking side.
April 2026 brought Season 8, titled Overpowered, which shipped a spell rebalance that buffed every spell in the game and wiped both the Gambit and Standard ladders. In total the season puts up 700,000 $CHECK, a figure that includes a 600,000 $CHECK Gambit prize pool. Ethernal holders get their full $CHECK pool in one transaction, while referrers collect cashback on platform fees.
Background
Incubated by Animoca Brands and built alongside Chess.com, Anichess layers spell mechanics on top of standard chess. Backers including Fenbushi, Sfermion and Amber Group have contributed to $3.3 million in funding, and the game claims a player base above 1 million.
Its public alpha arrived in October 2024 together with the Yield Guild Games partnership for Southeast Asia — one of the top three regions for the game by registered players — and launched with four modes: ranked match, quick match, friend match and bot match.
Away from the board, the game backed a team at the 2026 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship.