PokerStars will host a unique combined chess and poker tournament in Douglas, Isle of Man, on October 3rd.  This will coincide with the overlap between the PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour and the PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess in Douglas in October.

This special event will require participants to play both chess and poker in the same tournament.  It will cost ?200 to play (plus ?20 fee), and will take place in the Villa Marina.

The combined tournament will first feature each player playing chess – five rounds of blitz chess, where each player gets seven minutes to checkmate or run the other player out of time.  The players will then participate in a turbo poker tournament to crown a winner.

Each victory in the chess rounds will earn each player 1,000 in extra tournament chips, in addition to the 8,000 chips that each player ordinarily starts with.

Already confirmed to participate include:

•         The world’s #9 chess player Maxime Vachier Lagrave,
•         British #1 chess player Mickey Adams,
•         Poker pro and chess champion Almira Skripchenko
•         Chess Grandmaster Laurent Fressinet.
•         Supernova Elite poker players Radoslaw  “radoom” Jedynak   and Simon Ansell

PokerStars Supernova Elite and Grandmaster Radoslaw Jedynak thinks he may be a small favourite since the format suits him perfectly: “I like my chances but it is close.  The poker tournament is a hyper turbo style, which is exactly the formula I play every day. A strong poker player can lose all five chess games, win a coin-flip and have more chips than any grandmaster.”

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the highest ranked chess player in the PokerStars IOM International Chess Tournament has also signed up for the Chess/Poker event.   Maxime, plays poker every couple of months with friends and thinks poker pros have the best chances.  “Even an edge on chips doesn't guarantee anything if you don't follow it up with good poker. Almira (who has final tabled World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events) could be a favourite given her experience.”

Almira said she thought the format would give an advantage to the strongest chess players, “I am not sure they will be able to exploit it, since the stacks are rather deep at the beginning.” She said she’d pick her husband, Grandmaster Laurent Fressinet, as the favourite, “He is very good in rapid chess and quite an experienced player in tournament poker. As for Maxime, he is very strong in rapid, but his poker is a bit wild, he bluffs a lot!”