Is farming the Pixie Chess airdrop halal? I want to participate but I am not sure if it involves gambling.

The answer depends entirely on how you participate. Pixie Chess has two completely separate layers and each carries a different ruling.

The free gameplay layer is permissible. Playing chess games without any financial stake, completing daily quests, and maintaining account activity for airdrop eligibility all involve no money, no entry fees, and no prize pool competition. If a future PIXIE token rewards your free gameplay activity, that reward is permissible because it was earned through a halal activity. Chess itself is considered permissible by the majority of contemporary scholars when no gambling is involved and prayers are not neglected.

The tournament layer is Haram and must be completely avoided. To enter tournaments you must burn NFT chess pieces that have real ETH value. Those burned pieces go directly into an ETH prize pool that winners collect. This is a wagering structure where one player's financial gain comes from another player's loss. Whether you are skilled at chess or not does not change this. The financial structure is Maysir regardless of the skill element.

Buying pieces from the marketplace or auctions is also Haram even if you never enter a tournament. The platform's own documentation states directly that all money spent on pieces funds the tournament prize pools. Purchasing a piece makes you a financial contributor to an ETH gambling prize pool regardless of your personal intentions.

So the practical guidance is straightforward. Register, connect your wallet, play free games daily, complete quests, and stay active. Do not spend any ETH on pieces, auctions, mystery packs, or tournament entry. Do not let gameplay cause you to miss or delay salah.

One additional note for Muslim investors who follow scholars that consider chess itself prohibited: if your personal scholar holds this view, do not participate at any level regardless of the free play option. This is an area of genuine scholarly disagreement and your personal scholarly guidance takes precedence.