CheckMate Live

A New Era of Online Chess – An Esports Ecosystem Fueled by AI And Web3

We committed to building the product from scratch, which meant we had to write our own chess engine, and even more importantly, develop a fully custom game server that could handle multiple concurrent matches with minimal latency. We chose Elixir for its scalability and real-time performance – an unconventional but perfect fit. It turned out to be one of the best technical decisions we made.

On top of that server, we built what became one of our cornerstone achievements: a powerful tournament management system. This wasn’t just about hosting matches but also about recreating every standard tournament format used in professional chess – Swiss, Round Robin, Knockout, Double Knockout.

But we went further, adding multi-format tournaments, where players can compete in a Swiss format in round one and transition into a Knockout in round two. All common tie-breaker rules used in FIDE-sanctioned tournaments were also implemented.

That foundation was the launchpad for the rest of the platform

Once the core was built, we started focusing on our USPs. One of the big ones was video. In traditional online tournaments, if you want to monitor players, you’re forced to use third-party tools like Zoom or Skype. It’s messy and disconnected.

We did it differently.

We chose to build our platform on Tencent Cloud, specifically so we could integrate their TRTC engine. That gave us the ability to embed video feeds directly into the gameplay experience. Players could turn on their webcams, share their screens, and even join via mobile phone to provide a secondary camera angle if needed. No Zoom required. Everything was built into the platform itself.

This capability allowed us to bring a new feature to life: Arbiter Mode.

In physical tournaments, arbiters walk around, monitor players, issue warnings, and make tough calls. That role is missing in online chess, so we set out to change that.

With Arbiter Mode, a tournament official can log into any match as a silent observer. They can watch a player’s video feed, request a screen share, or even ask the player to join from their phone camera and show their playing area. They can pause games, disqualify players, issue warnings, or even change the result of a match, just like they would in real life.

This was a major milestone: we weren’t just replicating the chess game — we were replicating the full ecosystem of a professional tournament.

One of the biggest threats to online chess is cheating, especially players using engines like Stockfish in the background. So we had to go deeper.

We developed a custom integrity algorithm powered by AI. It works by analyzing every move a player makes, comparing it to the optimal move calculated by an engine. Over time, we build a profile for each player answering questions like how often do they play the top move? How does their behavior change across games?

This system allows us to flag suspicious patterns and offer arbiters detailed statistics of player performance. It’s contextual insight, which is critical when real-world consequences are involved, especially in FIDE-recognized tournaments.

To support tournament-level trust, we also implemented KYC (Know Your Customer) and FIDE profile integration, helping validate player identities in official settings.

As our first global tournaments launched, we hit an unexpected challenge: latency and time tracking. In some matches, players saw they had time remaining, but the server had already ruled them out due to lag. This was a huge problem, especially for professional tournaments.

So we built a latency-aware clock system. Our server now detects each player’s ping and dynamically adjusts their clock display up to 200ms, creating a more fair and realistic time control, especially in cross-continental matches.

Once the core tournament experience was stable, we finally turned our attention to engagement and monetization.

We introduced a leveling system tied to experience points and seasonal progression. On top of that, we designed a Battle Pass system with daily missions and unlockable content. Rewards ranged from avatars, board skins, and collectible cards, to stickers that could be used in games or traded on the platform’s in-game marketplace.

To fuel the economy, we introduced two currencies — Crowns and Credits — both obtainable via Stripe payments (fiat) or Web3 wallets (crypto). This allowed us to create a thriving, player-driven economy that added a gamified twist to a centuries-old game.