Chess on TV

[Clive Blackburn]

Chess can be live, but you're right, live broadcasts of just one game do have the dead air problem. A tournament with multiple games going on simultaneously is more viewer-friendly.

Yes, I spent some time in the commentary room at the British and that worked well. They were analysing the top 6 boards and switching from one game to another when a move was made.

It's a shame that technical issues affected the webcast of the commentary

[Jon Mahony]

Chess can be live, but you're right, live broadcasts of just one game do have the dead air problem. A tournament with multiple games going on simultaneously is more viewer-friendly.

Yes, I spent some time in the commentary room at the British and that worked well. They were analysing the top 6 boards and switching from one game to another when a move was made.

It's a shame that technical issues affected the webcast of the commentary

Not everyone was so thrilled, the times I was in there this year the same older man fell into a very deep sleep on more than one occasion Andrew Martin does have a soothing voice though. But yes I really enjoyed the commentry and it does work well with Multi game tournaments. I can't see a live WCM going on TV any time soon though, one game and what is it, 8 hours?

It wouldn't be so bad if those dammed GM's would bash out a few moves in the opening, 9 times out of 10 it must be stuff well known to them. The commentators would then have something to analyse, but a lot of GM games, seem to have long thinks around the move 6 mark.

[Roger de Coverly]

The commentators would then have something to analyse, but a lot of GM games, seem to have long thinks around the move 6 mark.

A more commentator friendly time limit would be to give players ten to twenty minutes at the start and then get an extra two or two and a half minutes every move. Unless adjournments were reinstated, the increments would have to be speeded up beyond move 40 or 60.

[Stewart Reuben]

I played poker against both the late Devilfish and Phil Hellmuth (The poker brat). I think I won money against both of them overall, but I retired in 2010 as I was no longer winning.
Chess, poker, bridge are all best pre-recorded and then edited. Jim Plaskett told ne that ''Do you want to be a millionaire?' was considerably edited. It was made to look as if his decisions were practically instantaneous when he won £250,000. In reality he took a considerable time.
Jon Mahony, I wonder whether you would enjoy going to Vegas and kibbitzing the World Series in the playing hall?
I wsn't doing well in 1995, so I played in the free-roll media tournament at the World Series. My late brother-in-law sat beside me and nobody objected. The late David Spanier wandered by and said, 'Stewart, it will be the ultimate humiliation if you don't win.' Later I was down to three chips on the last table. My brother-in-law went to the toilet. When he returned, he found I had more chips than everybody else put together.
I ended up winning against a daytime TV soap actor. They videoed us. I said, 'I've been playing poker for 47 years. How long have you been playing?' He looked at his watch and said, 'Two hours'.
I got $1000. Sadly there was no bracelet.
Written on a cruise ship having left Peru.

[Peter D Williams]

Written on a cruise ship having left Peru.

Are you on holiday? or is your visit to Peru anything to do with chess?

[Jon Mahony]

The commentators would then have something to analyse, but a lot of GM games, seem to have long thinks around the move 6 mark.

A more commentator friendly time limit would be to give players ten to twenty minutes at the start and then get an extra two or two and a half minutes every move. Unless adjournments were reinstated, the increments would have to be speeded up beyond move 40 or 60.

Definitely Roger, problem is though you would never get any serious games played at that time control (championships etc) and so I’d always have the feeling I was watching a live skittles game for TV.

I played poker against both the late Devilfish and Phil Hellmuth (The poker brat). I think I won money against both of them overall, but I retired in 2010 as I was no longer winning.
Chess, poker, bridge are all best pre-recorded and then edited. Jim Plaskett told ne that ''Do you want to be a millionaire?' was considerably edited. It was made to look as if his decisions were practically instantaneous when he won £250,000. In reality he took a considerable time.
Jon Mahony, I wonder whether you would enjoy going to Vegas and kibbitzing the World Series in the playing hall?

I would certainly love that Stuart - I plan to play a satellite tournament over the weekend that gets you a free seat in the UK championship in Feb, see if I can do a Chris Moneymaker on a smaller scale I would of course jump at the chance to go to the Word series in Vegas - sadly I can’t afford the £7.000 entry fee let alone all the expenses on top.

I hope you took Hellmuth all-in, is he as irritating as he appears to be on TV? There is a great clip on Youtube where Devilfish is late and holding a tournament up, Hellmuth is of course very vocal when Dave finally arrives, the Fish looks him up and down and says “Well now I’m going for a pee, so f*** you” He later takes a huge pot off him with a pair of K's and higher kicker, Classic

And yes if you feel you aren’t winning it’s a very good idea to call it a day, Chess you loose a few rating points, have a bad run at poker and the bankroll goes down (something I find infinitely more distressing).

[Stewart Reuben]

Peter D Williams >Are you on holiday? or is your visit to Peru anything to do with chess?<
Today I reached Chile. I am on a 4 week cruise from Fort Lauderdale through the Panama Canal, finishing in Buenos Aires. Nothing to do with chess or poker. My holidays start 1 January each year and finish 31 December.
Tomorrow I am meeting a strong (about 2100) correspondence chess player. He approached me as I was carrying the book, 'Zugswang', by Ronan Bennett.
A couple of days ago I received an email alert from BT. The subject was, 'Time to Jump Ship'. How apposite.
An aggravation this evening. They showed the film, 'The Dark Horse' on our cabin TVs. I only came across this halfway through the film. It is from New Zealand and concerns a strong chessplayer. I have been trying to see it for about two years. They told me it will again be shown on the voyage.

Jon, I didn't often play hold'em. Phil is probably deliberately aggravating. One Omaha hand in Vegas I had nothing on the flop and just a middle-pin nut straight draw on the turn. Everybody checked. The river I made the nut straight. Phil bet and I raised. He called and muttered after the hand, he having called with the second best straight, 'I should have realised he lacked the imagination to bet with anything other than the nuts.'

In the IOM years ago I called Phil all-in and I outdrew him. I had 8 outs. He waxed lyrical about my inadequacies as poker player on his blog. Of course, poker is one sport where you wAnt to be thought to be a weak player. But I doubt it did the sales of my books any good!

Apologies. This has wrenched the string totally away from chess.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

An aggravation this evening. They showed the film, 'The Dark Horse' on our cabin TVs. I only came across this halfway through the film. It is from New Zealand and concerns a strong chessplayer. I have been trying to see it for about two years. They told me it will again be shown on the voyage.

Hope you get to see the whole film properly. I saw it earlier this year at a showing where me and those I was with were quite surprised to see Ray Keene and his wife in the audience! (Not surprised to see him there, but surprised that we had by pure chance picked the same showing to go to).

A (short) thread on the film is here:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7297

I may copy over my thoughts on the film to there at some point (but really need to see it with subtitles first). The film was a lot more about mental health and particular aspects of NZ culture than chess, but it was worth watching at least once and was an inspiring story (some good acting as well).

[Peter D Williams]

[quote="Stewart Reuben"
Today I reached Chile. I am on a 4 week cruise from Fort Lauderdale through the Panama Canal, finishing in Buenos Aires. Nothing to do with chess or poker. My holidays start 1 January each year and finish 31 December.
Tomorrow I am meeting a strong (about 2100) correspondence chess player. He approached me as I was carrying the book, 'Zugswang', by Ronan Bennett.
/quote]

Thanks for your answer to my question.I think you should write a book about your life and all the different people you have met over the years.Peter at University now studying for a maths degree he does play for the university chess team, Have a happy christmas and a happy new year.

[Stewart Reuben]

Peter Williams >I think you should write a book about your life <

You may not know that one of my books is 'Poker 24/7 - 35 years a proker pro.' Cathy Rogers thought it should have been chess and poker, but who would have bought that?
I don't think an autobiography of my life in chess would sell at all well.

[Mike Truran]

Mammon vs legacy?

[Richard Bates]

Not really "chess on TV" as such, and apologies if already mentioned, University Challenge on Monday has a familiar face...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03chk1w/p03chgf3

[Peter D Williams]

Peter Williams >I think you should write a book about your life <

You may not know that one of my books is 'Poker 24/7 - 35 years a proker pro.' Cathy Rogers thought it should have been chess and poker, but who would have bought that?
I don't think an autobiography of my life in chess would sell at all well.

Hi Stewart

Maybe it wouldn't sell well but you know and have known many people I and I am sure many other chess enthusiasts would find it an interesting read

Peter

[Jon Mahony]

Peter Williams >I think you should write a book about your life <

You may not know that one of my books is 'Poker 24/7 - 35 years a proker pro.' Cathy Rogers thought it should have been chess and poker, but who would have bought that?
I don't think an autobiography of my life in chess would sell at all well.

Every 5 poker players on the TV you see these days, the commentators say they were Chess prodigies. Harrington and Dan Smith come to mind - though the latter also looks like he belongs as the main baddie of a season of Dexter - the pocket aces killer perhaps

Could be a cross cultural thing in many ways I would advise any chess player to have a go at poker, even if you don’t want to gamble. It does have a very chessy feel of “making moves”.

[Stewart Reuben]

Jon Mahoney >Every 5 poker players on the TV you see these days, the commentators say they were Chess prodigies. Harrington and Dan Smith come to mind <
Dan Harrington was a 2350 US rated player. That equates to about 2200-2250 FIDE. He is not prone to over-emphasis.
Chess, bridge, poker, backgammon all go together. Jonathan Mestel is a GM at both bridge and chess. Peter Lee gave up chess for bridge. Grischuk was first a chess GM, then took up poker, then returned to chess.

This evening in Chile on the cruise I finally saw 'The Dark Horse'. The chess advisor was listed, I think, as Shane Fitzgerald. The final game in a junior tournament looked like 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Nxe5 Nxe5 5 0-0 to me. It went by very rapidly. Of course White won. They schedule 21 films per week. The Dark Horse seems an odd choice.