Chess Poker

Hello I’m Kevin Bordi. Me and my partner Vlad Tkachiev ( former European Chess Champion ), have developed a new concept which allows players to bet on chess during the game. In a way It might be described as a Chess Poker. I’m pretty confident it is an interesting project, actually I spoke on this subject with Andy greekfish and he considered it as a great idea.

We wanted to make an invitational tournament ( World Series Of Chess ). With 8 top players playing HU matches from quarter final to the final to decide the winner. As in an Husng they would be given starting stack with the blinds growing during the match. Also as in poker if you fold it means you lost the game

Here is a short description of how the game might be played : … 10 minutes per player for each game and the betting system is the same as in Pot limit hold'em: players posting an Ante at the start of each game, and after 15-30-45th white's move the betting rounds should take place, white player acting first…

I’m looking forward to get your feedbacks/reviews, will be glad to provide anyone with the additional details

Don’t wanna praise too much my own idea, but I believe the marriage between chess and poker is a step in a very promising direction for both games.

I'm not sure. As a former croupier, I can tell you that the reason gambling works is because of the uncertainty involved in any given round of the game. Because the information is incomplete, you are will to stake money on the fact that the unknown information is favourable to you. In chess, not only is the skill of the players measurable and known through their rating but, most importantly, so too is the position. Each player has perfect information about the layout and odds of victory.

It could however, work for spectators...?

i second that^. maybe could work with spectators but not really sure if its goona work because most chess games start off the same way (specific openings) but then you can tell who has better skill

We wanted to make an invitational tournament ( World Series Of Chess ). With 8 top players playing HU matches from quarter final to the final to decide the winner. As in an Husng they would be given starting stack with the blinds growing during the match. Also as in poker if you fold it means you lost the game.

I would like to insist that from the spectators side, watching top guns playing this game would be quite exciting as during the game on 3 occasions we would be able to understand their evaluation of the position. And also for the first time the players would be able to talk to each other during a chess game which is, in my opinion, a great step in mediatizing the chess game. 

You're talking about chess betting, not chess poker. -.-

My general feeling: Meh.

 Agree 100%. I believe that it will be challenging for this idea to be implemented for two reasons: One is that a large number of players, organizers, and enthusiasts have a more traditional mindset and changing or adding components to the game are generally met with strong opposition regardless of the merits of what is being proposed. Two is that with early (and possibly pre-arranged) draws that more than often happen in chess games, it seems very easy for players to control the outcome of the games. One could easily see how this could become a betting scandal.

However, all that aside and back to the OP's proposition, a possible way to balance the position at each betting round is to add a certain odd multiplier to the side that is thought to be losing or who has the rating disadvantage. This could counter a bit the relative certainty of the strength of the position.

Chess is sometimes played with a doubling cube.  That  seems superior to your idea.   Your game would result in a lot of early resignations, since there would be little point in calling a bet if you are at the slightest disadvantage (a lot of games would end at move 15); whereas if you have a cube than accepting the double would at least give you possession of the cube (which has a value) and provides a range were you could be at a disadvantage, but it would still be correct to accept the double.

Some type of limit structure where the inferior side might receive decent pot odds might work, but pot limit wouldn't.

Not sure you got me here. I'm offering to make an event with 8 strong players ( 2700+ ) playing Husng match from quarter final to the final. Don't really see what they could do wrong ?

I agree that the chess community is conservative and it's maybe one of the reason why the chess game is actually lacking of popularity. In my point of view the fact that player could speak to each other during a chess game may really be a step in the good direction for mediatising the game. Also the betting round is something everybody can understand and gives an additional information of the evaluation of the position.

@Blake :  the betting system we get in poker seems in my opinion to be the one offering the more flexibility. Also with the Ante you got to pay at the start of the game, it seems to me that folding a slighlty worse position after the 15th would be a very exploitable mistake.

I agree that if the bet was small enough, then it could be a mistake to resign at the first betting round.  I was only considering a pot size bet.

Maybe betting is a good idea, but not in a poker way with antes, flops turns and rivers.

how would you see it ?

I see it in a much more basic format, with one round of betting per game. Maybe to mix it up a bit the starting positions could be out of different openings, or a chess960 starting position. It is quite a hard concept for me to grasp, maybe people should try chess poker out and see what happens, then new rules and styles would be invented naturally. :)

Wow all of these poker threads. Can we delete most of them?

yup

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Yup, one of these threads again...