Las Vegas is famous for gambling, hangovers and its mobster heritage. Next month it will boast a more cerebral attraction: high-stakes chess.
Dozens of grandmasters will be among the hundreds of competitors at the inaugural Millionaire Chess tournament in Sin City.
The prize fund, as the name suggests, is $1 million — the largest ever offered at a chess competition — with the overall champion taking $100,000. The organisers believe the cash can boost a game that has a 1,500-year history, but which has yet to fulfil its potential.
Players will arrive in chauffer-driven limousines at the Planet Hollywood resort on the Strip.
The event is the brainchild of Maurice Ashley, 48, the only African-American chess grandmaster, and will feature a new style of punditry created by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Using data-mining tools, they hope to glean insights into a game where the real action takes place inside the players’ minds.
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Mr Ashley says the technology will show the audience things that grandmasters will miss. “Somebody might make what looks like an excellent move — but we’ll show how he might die seven moves later.”
Players will compete according to age and ability, with the two-game final set for October 13. Each player will have 30 minutes to make a move. If a tie-breaker is needed, the time limit will fall to 15 minutes per player — and then to five minutes.
“It’ll be chaos,” Mr Ashley said. “The format will get your blood boiling.”