Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen on the hunt for a championship trophy

An international chess tournament, the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (MCCT), has announced the minting of indivisible trophies and collectibles (NFTs) to preserve the game’s most important moments ad infinitum. Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen

The MCCT winner will be awarded the NFT trophy, which marks the mainstream participation of the cryptocurrency of the international chess community. In the final round of the tournament, Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and nine other professional chess players, including Wesley So.

According to the official statement, Chess Champs will produce two versions of Champion’s Trophy NFT that will allow fans to obtain a copy of the trophy through an online auction. In addition, during the chess tour, the company will be releasing a number of NFT collections featuring “Plays, Moments and Players”.

Carlsen’s interest in crypto can be traced back to a recent chess tournament hosted by the FTX crypto exchange, in which the world champion won 0.6 Bitcoin (BTC) along with a cash prize of $ 60,000.

In addition to the prize pool, the chess community is investigating blockchain use cases to prevent fraud in online tournaments amid COVID-19 restrictions. In parallel with the postponement of the 2020 Candidates Chess Tournament in Yekaterinburg, Russia, World Chess previously investigated the possibility of broadcasting games online using blockchain technology.