As opposed to last year, when I was only a spectator of the combined chess and poker tournament, I decided to fork out £165 in order to be in the thick of the action this time around. While watching this innovative event had proven highly interesting and entertaining a year ago, witnessing it first hand was both a different and exciting experience altogether.
First things first though. Festivities kicked off at the Villa Marina at 1pm, when Britain’s number one and tournament top seed, Michael Adams, took on 18 opponents at a simultaneous display.
Picture Courtesy of Mickey May
After just under two and half hours, Adams had managed to win 17 of his games, but Alan Ormsby valiantly held on to achieve the only draw in this event. Since Alan also happens to be the tournament director of the PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess Tournament, he later had to go through quite some trouble to convince people this wasn’t a pre-arranged result!
Amongst Adams’ other opponents were Baard Dahl, the winner of last year’s combined chess and poker event, and PokerStars Team Pro Fatima Moreira de Melo.
Fatima Moreira de Melo
Once the simul was over, Adams had just over two hours in order to get ready for the combined chess and poker tournament, which was to start at 6pm. When asked about his chances in that event, he joked, “You never know where it might lead. I’m hoping to get quite a lot of points in the chess – or I’ll be in trouble!”
Simon Williams scoring an upset win against Mickey Adams on board 2
Funnily enough, quite the opposite happened. While Mickey finished the chess leg on a somewhat disappointing score of 4/6, he made it all the way to the final stage of the poker part. However, in the heads up he eventually lost out to Kenneth Chih-Hung, who thus became the winner of the second official combined chess and poker tournament. Congratulations!
Kenny Chih-Hung is a poker pro who hails from the USA, but now travels around Europe. The first part of this event represented his first ever chess tournament, something PokerStars Mind Sports Ambassador Jennifer Shahade had been instrumental in getting him to try after finding herself sat next to him in the Main Event.
When the event (which was part of the official PokerStars UKIPT tournament schedule) finally came to an end at 2.30am, long after most people were already in bed (or dancing the night away at the PokerStars party which was being held down the road), these were the final results:
1. Kenny Chih-Hung – £1,680
2. Mickey Adams – £1,165
3. Antonius Van Ingen – £742
4. Henrik Fabri – £445
5. Christopher Duncan – £445
6. Pentala Harikrishna – £345
A total of 34 players had participated in the event, which represents an increase of 10 people compared to last year! (At this rate, the organisers might have to consider upping the 40-player cap next year…) The format however remained unchanged. The participants first played 6 rounds of blitz chess (where GMs Fridman, Fressinet and Williams shared first place with 5/6), before proceeding to the Royal Hall for the poker part. There, chips were added to one’s initial 7000 starting stack according to the number of points scored in the blitz (1000 extra chips per point).
A view of the poker/chess tables, with the eventual final two, Adams and Chih-Hung, in the foreground
Out of the 34 participants, 9(!) were GMs and it was especially fascinating to see the top four seeds of the main chess tournament trying their luck at the poker tables for one night. In my report from last year’s event, I mentioned GMs Adams, Vachier-Lagrave, Hebden, Williams and Gormally all having been allocated to the same table had surely made this the highest rated poker table in history. However, if it wasn’t for yours truly also sitting on Table 15 (pictured below) last night, this table would probably have snatched that title!
The Grandmaster corner: GMs Harikrishna, Howell, Gormally and Fressinet
In another parallel, last year’s heads up had also featured a grandmaster, Mark Hebden, battling it out against a poker pro, Baard Dahl. The Norwegian had eventually gotten the better of his English opponent and had thus been crowned the winner of the first official chess and poker tournament in history. Surely that means it must be a Grandmaster’s time to shine next year!
In case anyone wonders how the press officer fared in this event, I finished the chess leg with 2.5/6 (after I started with 2.5/3…) and was knocked out on the poker tables when there were just under 20 players left. An honourable result for my debut, but I will be back with a vengeance next year!
Poker ace Liv Boeree watching over GM David Howell’s shoulder
After Fatima Moreira de Melo had tried her hand at chess earlier in the day, it was very nice seeing PokerStars Team Pro and TV celebrity Liv Boeree stopping by the blitz tournament at night. In fact Liv did not only watch the action, but actually played a few friendly chess games herself. You can find those pictures as well as many others from both events on the tournament’s official Facebook page.
On a final note, if you happen to be a chess and poker lover yourself, you can head to Jennifer Shahade’s PokerStars blog, where you will find GM Pal Benko’s stunning poker suit problems, which were composed in honour of the Isle of Man Chess Tournament.
Fiona Steil-Antoni
Press Officer
