International Chess Federation Launches An NFT Marketplace

The International Chess Federation just became the first global sports association to launch its own non-fungible token (NFT) market.

What Happened: The federation wrote in a recent announcement that it wants to "welcome a new crypto demographic” through the “gamification of iconic match moments, unique collectibles [and] chess-related art.”

The new market is called ChessNFT and will launch later this month before the World Chess Championship 2021 at the Expo 2020 Dubai, Nov. 24 to Dec. 16.

See Also: BEST NFT INVESTMENTS IN 2021

The report follows grandmaster Magnus Carlsen being recently awarded an NFT as the trophy for winning the international chess tournament, Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, which also minted several NFT trophies and collectibles. The event's organizer also partnered with crypto exchange FTX and allowed professional chess players to compete for a prize fund of 2.1825 Bitcoin BTC/USD.

The International Chess Federation partnered with TON Labs, the developer behind the FreeTON Network that is now rebranded to Everscale, to power its NFT marketplace. Everscale calls the kind of tokens that will be used TrueNFTs, and they're different from standard NFTs because even the actual media files featured in them will be stored on the blockchain.

Photo by Carlos Esteves on Unsplash