Chess fans should be enthralled tomorrow by the sight of some of the best chess players in the world locked in competion at the Villa Marina.

The Chess.com International Chess Masters event started on Saturday, October 20, and continues throughout this week culminating in the finals at the Villa Marina on Sunday October 28.

The event is also free to enter but mobile telephones should be turned off.

As a warm up event, prior to the main attraction, one of the visiting chess grand masters, American Wesley So, took on 20 of the island’s top players simultaneously in a special match organised by island chess player Alan Ormsby.

Mr So, who is ranked ninth in the world, won 18 games and drew the other two.

Zahed Miah, another of the organisers, said: ’Wesley would think for a few seconds for each game, make his move and proceed to the next game, whilst the other players usually have several minutes between each move, until Wesley returns to make his move again.

’Of course as games finish, there is less thinking time for the players as Wesley moves quicker round the remaining games, making it more difficult for the local players.

’Although afterwards Wesley acknowledged that this was one of the toughest simultaneous events he has taken part in, primarily because the Isle of Man has so many strong players.’

Mr Miah added a number of the Manx players held out well, including Mr Ormsby.

’The strongest local players were all placed at the top end of the table and not surprisingly these games lasted the longest. Wesley managed to dispatch most of the strongest Manx players including Keith Allen, Henrik Fabri, Silvestor Sipos and Francis Thoday.

’Congratulations must go to both Baard Dahl and Dietmar Kolbus who both drew their game against the world number nine.

’A special thank you to the sponsors of this event, Chess.com and the Scheinberg family who have been very generous with their contribution in recent years. Also to the Isle of Man government for use of the Villa Marina,’ Mr Miah said.

Each day this week, there will be two games unfolding at the Villa Marina, one amateur and one for the chess masters.

Details of the tournament and a list of all the masters taking part can be found on the following link: http://iominternationalchess.com/