Magnus Carlsen has won the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (MCCT) and the NFT trophy that came alongside the cash prize.
About the NFT won by Magnus Carlsen
The winner of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour won an NFT trophy in addition to a cash prize. Perhaps unsurprisingly, after 10 players competed, the crowned champion was World #1, Magnus Carlsen. In addition to the NFT trophy, a second version of the NFT trophy, digitally signed by Carlsen, is up for auction here: Chesschamps.io. Also, the organization will produce a series of NFT collectibles showing “the moves, the minutes and the players” on the chess visit.
Despite winning the tournament, the Norwegian Chess Champion lost a few games and wasn’t happy with his performance. Magnus said in an interview that “Today was really poor, but right now I don’t really care.”
In addition to this award, the chess community is exploring the blockchain further, to see if they can find a solution to prevent cheating in online tournaments. This is amid ongoing COVID-19 restrictions that still don’t allow for some tournaments in-person.
The Future of NFTs in Sports
This tournament has shown the potential for using NFT trophies rather than, or alongside a physical counterpart. Plus, in terms of fans, replica trophies give them an immutable way to remember the experience. Instead of just keeping a ticket or match day programme, they’ll have a replica of the trophy as an NFT to keep forever.
Recently, Cristiano Ronaldo was given an NFT trophy for being the Euro 2020 top scorer. We’ve – of course – seen sports leagues explore NFTs with the likes of NBA Topshot and SoRare. However, this new angle within the Chess industry could be a new use case for sporting NFTs in the future.
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