ChessCoin (CHESS) sounds like a smart idea: a cryptocurrency built just for chess players. You play a game, win a match, and earn CHESS tokens. You could use them to enter tournaments, buy chess puzzles, or even tip your favorite streamer. Sounds cool, right? But here’s the truth - as of late 2025, ChessCoin is barely alive. It’s not dead, but it’s not functioning either. Most people who own it bought it hoping for a quick gain. Very few actually use it for chess.
What ChessCoin was supposed to be
ChessCoin was launched as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, meant to be the fuel for a decentralized chess platform. The idea was simple: reward players for playing, voting on rules, or even creating content. It used a hybrid Proof of Work and Proof of Stake model, but the mining phase ended before launch. That means CHESS has been 100% Proof of Stake since day one - you can’t mine it. You can only hold it and earn tiny rewards by staking.The contract address is 0x9ca5dfa3b0b187d7f53f4ef83ca435a2ec2e4070, according to CoinGecko. But even that’s confusing. Etherscan lists another address (0x5f75112bbb4e1af516fbe3e21528c63da2b6a1a5), which might be a different version or just a mistake. Either way, there’s no official wallet, no mobile app, and no clear instructions on how to use CHESS in real life.
Where ChessCoin stands today
As of November 2025, ChessCoin’s market cap is around $6,862, based on Etherscan data. That’s less than the cost of a good chess set. There are only 1,047 people who hold the token. Compare that to Ethereum, which has millions of holders. CHESS trades on just seven exchanges, and daily volume hovers around $1.2 million - tiny for any crypto, but especially for a project claiming to serve a global community of 600+ million chess players.The price has been stuck between $0.09 and $0.11 for over a year. It peaked at $0.114 in 2023, but since then, it’s barely moved. No major exchange lists it. No chess platform - not Chess.com, not Lichess, not even small indie apps - accepts CHESS as payment. That’s the biggest problem: there’s no real use case.
Why no one uses it
People don’t use CHESS because there’s nothing to use it for. You can’t buy a premium Chess.com membership with it. You can’t tip a streamer on Twitch with it. You can’t enter a tournament with it. The official website hasn’t been updated since 2022. The GitHub repo has three commits in 2023 - and none since March.Users on Reddit and CoinMarketCap are blunt. One user wrote: “Tried to use it on a chess platform but nowhere accepts it.” Another said: “Never heard of this, is it even still active?” Out of 17 user ratings on CoinMarketCap, the average score is 2.1 out of 5. The most common complaint? “No actual utility.”
Even the developers seem gone. No announcements. No social media posts. No Discord activity. The project’s last official update was on Binance Square in January 2023 - over two years ago. That’s a red flag. Most crypto projects die within 18 months if they don’t deliver. ChessCoin is already past that.
How it compares to other gaming tokens
ChessCoin isn’t the only crypto built for games. Enjin (ENJ) powers over 100 games across multiple genres. Gala (GALA) has a full ecosystem with games, NFTs, and a marketplace. Immutable X (IMX) has partnerships with big studios. All of them have millions in daily volume and thousands of active users.ChessCoin doesn’t have any of that. It’s a single-purpose token with no ecosystem. It doesn’t even have a basic marketplace. It doesn’t offer staking rewards anyone cares about. It doesn’t have a roadmap. It doesn’t have a team that talks to users.
Some people compare it to Tranchess - but that’s a mistake. Tranchess is a DeFi yield protocol. ChessCoin has nothing to do with yield farming or asset splitting. That mix-up on CoinMarketCap is just a data error, but it shows how little clarity exists around CHESS.
Is it worth buying?
If you’re thinking of buying CHESS because you like chess - don’t. There’s no benefit. You won’t get discounts. You won’t unlock features. You won’t earn rewards from playing.If you’re buying it as a speculative investment - be warned. The market cap is so small that one large seller could crash the price. The liquidity is thin. The community is silent. The developers are gone. There’s no catalyst for growth. Analysts at Delphi Digital and the Blockchain Research Institute have labeled it “effectively inactive.”
Even the most optimistic take - that “it could work if chess platforms adopt it” - ignores reality. Chess.com and Lichess have no interest in integrating a token with zero users and no utility. Why would they? They already have subscriptions, ads, and donations. Adding CHESS would cost them money and confuse their users.
What you can actually do with CHESS today
Nothing practical.You can buy it on small exchanges like BitMart or Gate.io. You can store it in MetaMask by manually adding the contract address. You can watch the price crawl up and down by pennies. You can hope someone else buys it for more.
That’s it.
There’s no app. No game integration. No staking dashboard. No rewards program. No roadmap. No team updates. No community events. No future.
Final reality check
ChessCoin was an idea with potential. But potential without execution is just noise. In crypto, ideas are cheap. Building something people use is hard. ChessCoin didn’t build anything. It didn’t even try.It’s not a scam. There’s no evidence of fraud. But it’s not a project anymore. It’s a ghost. A token with a name, a contract, and a price - but no purpose.
If you’re a chess player looking for ways to earn from your passion, look elsewhere. Play tournaments. Stream on Twitch. Build a YouTube channel. Those are real paths. CHESS won’t help you.
As of late 2025, ChessCoin exists only as a footnote in crypto history - a quiet reminder that even the coolest ideas fail without real people, real work, and real utility.
Is ChessCoin (CHESS) still active?
As of late 2025, ChessCoin shows no signs of active development. The last GitHub commit was in March 2023. There have been no official announcements since early 2023. The project’s website is outdated, and social media channels are silent. With only 1,047 token holders and minimal trading volume, it’s effectively inactive.
Can I use CHESS to play chess or enter tournaments?
No. Not a single major chess platform - including Chess.com, Lichess, or any known online chess app - accepts CHESS as payment or reward. There are no known integrations, no official partnerships, and no user-facing tools that let you spend CHESS in a chess context.
What’s the current price of ChessCoin?
As of November 2025, CHESS trades between $0.095 and $0.105 on the few exchanges that list it. Prices vary slightly between platforms due to low liquidity. The 52-week range is $0.018 to $0.115, showing minimal movement over the past year.
How many ChessCoin tokens are there?
The maximum supply of CHESS is 94 million tokens. However, the circulating supply is unclear. Some sources list it as zero, while others suggest nearly all tokens are in circulation. The on-chain market cap is under $7,000, which suggests most tokens are held by a few wallets and not actively traded.
Is ChessCoin a good investment?
No. ChessCoin lacks utility, community, development, and liquidity. It has no real-world use, no roadmap, and no team activity. Analysts classify it as a high-risk, low-probability asset. Even if the price rises slightly, there’s no mechanism to sustain value. Buying CHESS is speculative gambling, not investing.
Where can I buy ChessCoin?
CHESS is listed on a handful of small exchanges like BitMart, Gate.io, and P2PB2B. It is not available on major platforms like Binance, Coinbase, or Kraken. To buy it, you’ll need to transfer ETH or another major crypto to one of these exchanges and trade for CHESS. Always verify the contract address (0x9ca5dfa3b0b187d7f53f4ef83ca435a2ec2e4070) before trading.
Can I stake CHESS to earn rewards?
Technically, yes - because CHESS uses Proof of Stake. But there is no official staking portal, no dashboard, and no clear instructions. Any staking would require using a third-party wallet or platform that supports ERC-20 tokens, and even then, rewards are negligible or non-existent due to low participation.
Why do some sites confuse ChessCoin with Tranchess?
This is a data error. Tranchess (CHESS) is a completely different DeFi protocol that manages yield-bearing assets. It has nothing to do with chess games. CoinMarketCap and some other platforms mistakenly linked the two due to identical ticker symbols. Independent sources like CoinGecko and Etherscan confirm they are unrelated projects.
