If you’ve touched more than three Web3 games, you probably know the script by heart.

Step one: connect a wallet.
Step two: sign a message you don’t quite understand.
Step three: maybe buy an NFT, learn a token ticker, get pitched an APR.

Only then, somewhere on step four or five, do you finally… play. Anichess flips that script.

You open a browser. You see a board. You start playing chess—with spells. Only much later, if you care to dig, do you realise that the thing humming under the hood is onchain.

“You can just play”: onboarding that hides the chain

Most blockchain games make you jump through hoops before you can play, connect a wallet, sign something confusing, maybe buy a token. Anichess saves real players the hassle by making onboarding feel more like a regular app than a crypto project: go to the site, sign up with Chess.com, Gmail, Facebook, Discord, X—or use a crypto wallet like MetaMask or Rabby. If you pick a social login, Anichess quietly creates a non-custodial wallet for you. No seed phrase, no crypto jargon, but the assets you earn are still truly yours.

This is intentional Web2.5 design. The blockchain is there, but hidden until it matters. No launcher. No install. No pre-game wallet setup.

That shift sounds small, but it’s a big break from most onchain games. Anichess doesn’t start with crypto, it starts with chess.

Deep game design, not “click to farm”

Take away the blockchain, and Anichess is still a game worth playing. It’s not a glorified yield loop or a dressed-up token farm. It’s a full strategy game—built by Chess.com and Animoca Brands—that reimagines classic chess with a twist: kingslay.

You win by capturing the king, even if yours is exposed. That small rule change opens up a more brutal, dynamic kind of match.

Then come the spells. Each player gets a small pool of mana—earned slowly, one point per turn—and spends it to cast game-changing effects: teleport a piece, summon a pawn, shift the board.. So every move is a decision: advance your position, save your mana, or pull off a risky spell that might flip the game?

New players start with a simple spellbook and unlock more as they progress. Your loadout shapes your strategy; some favor slow, positional pressure; others thrive in chaos.

And this all sits in a real competitive structure: blitz and rapid formats, ranked ladders powered by Glicko2, AI training, and friend matches. It feels more like a modern tactics game than anything you’d expect in Web3.

You don’t need to know what a wallet is to feel that difference. You just open a tab and start playing. The game is the experience. Onchain is just the backend.

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