Leading NFT marketplace, 1Kind, completed its first ever online NFT auction last month, honouring the legacy of World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov. The event set a new benchmark in enshrining the achievements of extraordinary talents within the digital world, preserving them for future generations.
For this first drop, the team chose to celebrate Garry Kasparov, working closely with the grandmaster to select NFTs that reflected defining moments of his life. These were made available to purchase on the 1Kind platform from 14th – 17th December 2021. staggered across three phases, the drop fetched a total of 285 ETH, equal to $1.1M USD at the time of writing.
A final NFT was released on Christmas Day as a Tribute NFT to Garry’s beloved mother. This included an illustration of two photographs, one of Garry and the other of his father in their thirties, kept together on his mother’s bedside table. Garry aims to further honour his mother’s legacy by donating 10% of the total profits of his drop to the Garry Kasparov Foundation, which promotes education through chess worldwide. Kasparov has earmarked the funds towards a new scholarship fund in his mother’s name that will provide scholarships to exceptional children who are raised by single mothers.
Commenting on the drop, Gary Kasparov said: "My NFT venture with 1Kind reflects my lifelong desire to take on new challenges and work with exciting new technologies. From artificial intelligence to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, I’ve always believed that innovation is the only way forward. We’ve worked together closely from the start to create not just unique items, but a completely new way of using NFTs to tell a story, one with real history behind it. "
Commenting on the drop, Dr Kristian Haehndel, Co-founder of 1Kind, added: “We were confident from day one, when we partnered with Garry Kasparov, that the auction will have good traction. We can definitely say that we’ve set an exceptional benchmark for primary releases and aim to improve upon this in future drops.”
“As the leading marketplace for exclusive collectable digital assets and experiences from the world’s most remarkable people, we are committed to an exclusive, secure, and carbon-negative offering. We are honoured to be able to debut our platform with chess icon Garry Kasparov. Through 1Kind, we aim to create a digital community and offer incredible experiences in the form of NFTs whilst making a social impact” added co-founder of 1Kind, Gadi Glikberg.
1Kind, founded by Gadi Glikberg and Dr. Kristian Haehndel, selects remarkable celebrities, artists, thinkers, and visionaries to become part of the 1Kind community, and engages with them to share their personal stories and legacy through 1Kind in the form of NFTs or collectible digital artworks and in-person experiences. 1Kind is also committed to offsetting 500 tonnes of carbon even before selling a single NFT. Their carbon offsetting will benefit a wind farm in Turkey, a project that offsets carbon while generating clean energy.
