Get ETH on Robinhood Chain
$HOP lives on Robinhood Chain. Bridge a little ETH over for the swap and gas.
chess for stakes · on Pons
$H♞P
Never straight. Always forward.
Chess for stakes. Lock $HOP, sit across from a real opponent, and the winner takes the loser's stake. Named for the knight: the only piece that hops, and it never moves in a straight line.
CAdropping at launch
● live gamemove 1
setting the board…
what $HOP is
A coin you earn by outplaying someone, not by waiting for a chart.
Here's the whole idea. $HOP is a token on Robinhood Chain, launched on Pons, and it's what you play chess for. Two players lock the same amount of $HOP, sit down for a real game with a real clock, and the winner walks away with both stakes. Nobody prints rewards, and there's no farm to drain. Every $HOP a winner takes was put on the table by the player across from them.
That's what makes it different from most play-to-earn games. The money comes from your opponent, so the only way to earn is to be the better player on the day. The house takes a small cut of each decided game, and half of that cut is burned for good, so every win also shrinks the supply.
It's named after the knight. The knight is the only piece that hops over others, and it never moves in a straight line. It gets where it's going on the angle, over anyone in the way. That's the attitude: never straight, always forward.
Not ready to play for stakes? The arena has a practice board against a bot, free, with nothing locked.
why it's called hop
Nb1–b2 illegal
The knight never moves straight.
Not one square forward, not one sideways. Straight lines are for other coins.
Nb1–c3 hop
It's the only piece that jumps.
It moves in an L, right over anyone standing in the way. Walls don't exist for a knight.
Nc3×d5 capture
Anyone in the way gets taken.
Land on a piece and it's yours. No warning, no straight line to see it coming.
Nd5 # checkmate
Checkmate. Take their stake.
In the $HOP arena every game is played for real $HOP, and the winner walks away with the loser's stake.
✕
♟
♟
♟
♜
♚
♞
Winner takes the stake.
the arenaon the table0 $HOP
− house fee
Checkmate.
♞you · 50,000
♚them · 50,000
Pick a stake and a clock. You're matched with someone who locked the same amount of $HOP, and you both play a real game of chess.
Win, and their stake is yours. Lose, and yours is theirs. A draw hands both stakes back. Run out of time or walk away and the game is lost.
Stakes are only ever in $HOP, held by the match contract until the game ends, never by us. A small house fee comes off each pot, and part of it is burned.
A match, start to finish.
how a game works♞
e1
You set the table.
Choose how much $HOP to put up and how long each side gets on the clock. Leave the seat open for anyone, or paste a friend's wallet so only they can sit down. Your stake moves into the arena contract the moment you set the table.
Changed your mind before anyone joins? Cancel and the whole stake comes straight back.
1+0 bullet3+2 blitz5+0 blitz10+0 rapidmin 1,000 $HOP at launch
e2
Someone takes the seat.
Your opponent locks exactly the same amount, so the pot is always even. From this moment both stakes are on the table and the result window opens: the game has six hours to be settled.
e3
You play.
A live game of chess with both clocks running. The first number in the clock is your minutes for the whole game. The second is the seconds you get back after every move you make. There are no takebacks and no pausing, the same as over a real board.
e4
The game ends.
You lose if you're checkmated, if you resign, or if your clock hits zero. Walking away counts as running out of time.
It's a draw on stalemate, repetition, not enough pieces left to mate, or if you both agree to one.
e5
The contract pays out.
The game server signs the result and it's submitted to the arena contract, which pays the winner both stakes minus the house fee in the same transaction. On a draw, both players get their full stake back, with no fee taken.
e6
And if anything breaks.
If no result reaches the contract within six hours, anyone can trigger a refund and both players get their full stake back. You can also resign on-chain at any point without the game server at all. However the game goes, your stake is never stuck.
Where every $HOP goes.
a 50,000 $HOP gamethe pot100,000 $HOP
↓ you win
split of the pot97,000 to you
↓ the 3,000 house fee
split of the feehalf burned
At launch the house fee is 3% of the pot, taken only when a game has a winner. A draw costs nothing.
The contract caps that fee at 5% and it can never go higher. The fee for your game is locked in the moment the table is set, so it can't change while you're playing.
Half of every fee is burned: it's sent to the dead address and gone for good, so every decisive game takes $HOP out of circulation. The other half goes to the $HOP treasury.
You keep the other 97%. That's 47,000 $HOP of profit on a 50,000 $HOP win.
Nobody can run off with your stake.
built into the contract♜
A contract holds the stakes, not a person.
Every stake sits in the arena contract until its game ends. It doesn't pass through a team wallet or a server.
♚
Not even the owner can touch them.
No function in the contract lets anyone move a locked stake. Stakes only go to the winner or back to the players.
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The fee is capped and locked.
The fee can never exceed 5%, and each table keeps the fee it was created with, so it can't be raised mid-game.
♞
You can always leave.
Cancel before anyone joins, resign on-chain any time, or claim a full refund if no result arrives within six hours. Pausing the arena only stops new tables and never blocks a way out.
♛
Results are signed, and swapping the signer is public.
Only results signed by the game server's key can pay out, and a signed result can't be reused for another game. Changing that key takes a two-day delay that anyone can see on-chain.
♟
Every game leaves a fingerprint.
Each payout records a hash of the game's full move list on-chain, so anyone can check the published game against what was paid.
♚
What the contract can't do
A contract can't see the board, so it can't tell whether someone is using a chess engine. Catching that is the game server's job: pairing players of similar strength, analysing move timing and accuracy, and holding payouts on games that get flagged. Play fair. The whole point is that the better player wins.
Pull up a chair.
your seat♟
not seated
not connected
Not seated
Connect a wallet and we'll read your $HOP balance from Robinhood Chain. Your arena record shows up here once the tables open.
- $HOP held
- —
- share of supply
Pawnany $HOP
Knight0.1%+
Rook0.5%+
King1%+
♞
Titles are for fun and live on this site only. They don't change your odds in the arena.
Four moves to the table.
Buy $HOP on Pons
Head to the Pons launchpad, connect, and swap for $HOP. It's the only thing the tables accept.
Take a seat
Choose your stake and clock. You're paired with a player who locked the same amount.
Win their stake
Checkmate, a resign or a flag ends it. The contract pays the winner both stakes, minus the house fee.
♞
Your move: ask anything.
faqpick a square · the knight goes where your question is
1. Pa31 / 11