Anichess Unveils Masters League With 100,000 $CHECK Prize Pool

Anichess has laid out the structure of its Masters League, an eight-player competitive circuit that pays out 100,000 $CHECK and formalizes the top tier of the game's spell-casting chess scene.

The league runs as a round robin of best-of-five matches among the eight highest-ranked players in chess with spells. According to anichessgame, the format carries built-in turnover: the top four finishers retain their seats into the following season, while four new players earn their way in every season.

The first eight competitors are already locked in, drawn from the Road to Magnus Cup and Anichess's last two playoff qualifiers. Four of those seats are set to change hands when the current season concludes.

The announcement expands on the Masters League first referenced in Anichess's Season 10 "Ascension" reveal on September 17, which carried a 300,000 CHECK total prize pool alongside the 100,000 CHECK allocation for the eight-seat league.

What the league formalizes

Anichess is a Web3 chess game built by Animoca Brands and Chess.com and endorsed by five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen. It layers a magic-formula spell system on top of standard chess rules, and competitive ladders such as Road to Magnus and the Magnus Cup have previously given players a route to face Carlsen directly.

The Masters League gives that pipeline a persistent top tier rather than a one-off tournament, with season-to-season relegation and qualification built into the ruleset.

What to watch next: the four seats that turn over at season's end, and which qualifiers claim them.