The #1 chess player in France, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and the #1 British player, Mickey Adams have accepted invites to the PokerStars Isle of Man International (October 4-12) coming up this fall. One of the most talented GMs in the World, Julio Granda Zuniga of Peru, and chess and poker professional Almira Skripchenko are also playing.

The IOM International will overlap with the UKIPT stop in the Isle of Man (October 2-6). Two players perfectly embody the spirit of this festival of games, achieving the most prestigious titles in both fields.

“When I first logged on to PokerStars,” Radoslaw Jedynak said, “I saw the various awards levels and thought to myself, I want to get THAT one with all the stars (Supernova elite).” Radoslaw also has the highest chess title possible, Grandmaster. When Radoslaw first made SuperNova Elite in 2010, he thinks that it was easier than attaining the GM title.

A hyper-turbo player who goes by “radoom” Radoslaw plays 30-40 NLHE SNGs at once, using one monitor to cascade tables in the early stages and tiling those that require more thought, on the bubble or heads-up. He lives and plays online in Warsaw, Poland.

Before poker, Radoslaw played the chess form of hyper-turbos, “lightning chess,” or “bullet chess”, in which both players have only one or two minutes to complete all his moves. Radoslaw has played over 10,000 one minute games, “When I started playing SNGs it seemed to me the same game. You need to make the right decision in a fraction of a second. It’s like mating someone with a rook in three seconds.”

He now believes the work required to beat the 2014 games while playing such a large SNE volume is more similar to attaining GM. He compares the quest to SNE to prepping for a big chess tournament. “I studied three months (for my 2014 SNE grind) when I was in Las Vegas (for live cash). I spent a few hours a day compiling 50-100 pages of notes.” Once 2014 began, he didn’t spend much time on studying, beyond writing down a few tough spots and analyzing them later. He compares this process to doing most of your opening preparation prior to a chess tournament.

Radoslaw says he chose the path to SuperNova Elite to reduce variance. “I’ve had 2.5 years without a losing month. I try to minimize the luck factor (in poker) and to make it more like chess.”

When pressed on interests outside work Radoslaw was unpretentious: “Chess, poker, partying, travels: it’s my whole life.” This year he intends to finish the SNE job in around September, just in time to enjoy all of his hobbies at once in the Isle of Man. “I think it will be a great tournament.”

Simon Ansell has been SuperNova Elite since 2009. He also holds the International Master title, the second highest in chess. For Simon, who lives in London, making SNE was even harder than earning the IM title. “Chess always came pretty easy to me,” he says, since he picked it up at a very young age and is an intuitive player.

Though he started in Hold’em, he has since made the switch over to PLO. Now he mostly plays Zoom: “Even if the winrates are smaller, I save time from table politics.” Simon sees a lot of similarities between poker and chess in terms of pattern recognition: “Estimating quickly where you are in a hand (is kind of like) finding a smothered mate (with the beautiful Qg8+ & Nf7 finale) instantly.”

Simon has also stepped into a new role recently as a dad. Simon, who lives in North London, calls his profession perfect , since it gives him the ability to look after kids even at “ridiculous hours”, as he points out “Most people don’t have that luxury.”

Simon has positive memories from playing the Isle of Man Chess International previously and is thrilled about its resurgence under PokerStars branding: “PokerStars sponsoring a chess tournament is great news. It’s a great market for them.”

See the full list of players and tournament details at //iominternationalchess.com/

Jennifer Shahade is a poker and chess player and the Mind Sports Ambassador for PokerStars.