Poker is often, if not always, touted as a game of skill, analytical thinking, and well – plain old strategy. Now, there have been many arguments to support or conversely – disprove both arguments. PokerStars Ambassadors Negreanu and Boeree have decided to give their cerebrum a mighty challenge by competing at chess.
Castling of the King and Queen
On Sunday, October 14, two PokerStars Ambassadors, Daniel Negreanu and Liv Boeree, are taking on two experts from the realm of chess. The pair will meet serious competition in the face of IM and Chess.com content executives Daniel Rensch and Jennifer Shahade.
There will be five total show matches which will have the poker professionals and chess experts dive head on against each other with all games being streamed on Twitch’s PokerStars and Chess channels.
But this is hardly everything that the hosts have in mind for you. The Chess.com stream will also conclude the so-called My Chess Poker Game Platinum Pass Contest, which allowed participants the opportunity to snatch up a $30,000 Platinum Pass, which was based on a contest to design a new game incorporating elements from chess and poker.
Overall, 70 submissions arrived down the pipeline and six finalists have been highlighted as potential winners. The actual matches will see the poker and chess professionals partner up with those whose element is chess selecting the pieces and those who understand poker decide where the pieces should go.
Naturally, the whole undertaking intends to be a purely public match that will try to build excitement around the brands involved and not so much prove the inherent correlation between the games, although there are hints at that – quite naturally, too.
Negeanu and Boree – The Brave Faces of Poker
By agreeing to be the faces of PokerStars Negreanu and Boree were aware that they would have to fulfil many different roles to spread the popularity of the game. Meanwhile, PokerStars’ choice to partner up with Chess.com is an ingenuine way to prove the inherent correlation between strategic thought and poker.
Of course, there have been those to call any attempts to equate or amalgamate poker and chess a futile effort and a product derived this way would have no real staying power.
While Boeree and Negreanu have not commented on any of these concerns, it’s evident that it’s very unlikely to have a new form of a game that combines poker and chess and achieve the same popularity as the aforementioned which have been around for hundreds of years in the case of the one, and thousands in the case of the other.
However, Negreanu is not going entirely unprepared. Earlier in 2018, he spoke to the World Series of Poker (WSOP), announcing his decision to explore the game in-depth.
It helps to know that Negreanu likes to keep an open mind about many of the other games he dabbles in. One of his top picks included Blizzard’s turn-based card game, Hearthstone about which he talked at length.
Negreanu will have a real chance to shine at the upcoming event and demonstrate how analytical thought can help you shine across the board.
