In Brief:
- Anichess (official site) told players to opt in to a migration of their M8 points, the first step in moving the game back to Base.
- The opt-in runs through the Anichess homepage and takes less than a minute, the game said.
- M8 gates entry to Anichess’s competitive modes and is earned by playing Standard matches or staking $CHECK, so balances carry real weight.
Anichess is moving back to Base, and it’s starting with player points.
“Back to @base we go, mates,” the game said 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 ↗
Players opt in on the Anichess homepage. The process takes less than a minute, the game said. Anichess didn’t give a deadline or say which parts of the ecosystem follow the points.
What M8 does
M8 is the game’s onchain points layer. It isn’t a token, and it can’t be bought.
Players earn it by completing 15 Standard matches a week, with the amount tied to rating class, and by staking $CHECK. The claim window opens at 08:00 UTC. Unclaimed M8 accumulates, and weekend claims can be delayed but stay valid for 24 hours.
The points also gate competitive play. M8 buys entry to Checkmate Arena, where 50 players are selected at random each week and receive a minimum of 500 $CHECK each.
Base, then Abstract, now Base again
Anichess built M8 on Base in April 2025 and described it as the onchain layer that rewards consistent play. Points earned during Season 3, the public alpha tied to a Yield Guild Games distribution deal, were converted to M8 automatically.
Then the token arrived and the stack split. Anichess adopted $CHECK as its native token on Nov. 13, 2025, following a phased rollout that began Nov. 12. Abstract took on staking, claims, M8 accrual and early $CHECK mechanics. Base kept liquidity and trading through Aerodrome Finance, with players bridging from Abstract to Base to trade or provide liquidity. The Ethernals NFT collection stayed on Ethereum.
Abstract also hosted the Pudgy Takeover, billed as the first large Anichess event on that chain. It added a PenguBoard mode and a PenguBlast spell, put up to 600,000 $PENGU in prizes on the table and restricted tournament entry to players signed in with Abstract Global Wallet.
Where the token stands
$CHECK has a fixed supply of 1 billion, with 59.38% allocated to ecosystem growth and player rewards. It went live and tradable on Coinbase on April 2, 2026, and rose more than 70% after listings on BingX Alpha and other exchanges. The token hit an all-time high of $0.1076 on March 5, 2026, with circulating supply around 412.57 million.
Holders use it for tournament entry, staking that generates M8, in-game purchases and governance through Checkmate Improvement Proposals. Staking runs through public and OG pools.
Season 8, called Overpowered, launched in April 2026 with a spell rebalance that buffed every spell in the game and reset both the Gambit and Standard ladders. The season carries 700,000 $CHECK in total, including a 600,000 $CHECK Gambit prize pool. Ethernal holders receive their entire $CHECK pool in a single transaction, and referrers earn cashback on platform fees.
Background
Anichess was incubated by Animoca Brands and developed with Chess.com, adding spell mechanics to standard chess. It has raised $3.3 million from backers including Fenbushi, Sfermion and Amber Group, and counts more than 1 million players.
The public alpha opened in October 2024 alongside the Yield Guild Games partnership covering Southeast Asia, one of the game’s top three regions by registered players, and shipped four modes: ranked match, quick match, friend match and bot match.
Off the board, the game sponsored a team at the 2026 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship.
