Media comments on chess

[Simon Brown]

I once had an opponent whose board strategy was to cover up the h8 square with his pinkie.

Quite impressive if he was White

[David Sedgwick]

What timing, with the Board Strategy Weekend starting later today.

Board strategy?

Do they mean whether to use solid wood or roll-up plastic ones?

I've amended my post.

[JustinHadi]

I once had an opponent whose board strategy was to cover up the h8 square with his pinkie.

Quite impressive if he was White

Sadly not, I think he was trying to compensate for playing the Philidor's.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Tbh I think we should accept that Fischer-Spassky was an unrepeatable one-off, rather than wistfully looking on it as some (unattainable) norm.

Of course, that doesn't mean that things couldn't be a lot better than they are right now......

[Nick Grey]

On BBC missing out on Short v Kasparov very short memory. They lost the TV rights. Channel 4 & a rather young Carol Vorderman & live coverage of whole match. GMs commentary.

The only thing very similar to this was Test Match Special on cricket on radio for hours on hours.

[Roger de Coverly]

On BBC missing out on Short v Kasparov very short memory.

They still did "Match of the Day" style commentary. From memory they had Hartston, Norwood and one of the female Newsnight presenters (Kirsty Walk?). Did they also have Keene's crony Divinsky? They managed to get Campomanes in for an interview, but I don't think David N and Bill H were quite up to the Paxman standard. I think they had future ECF President Dominic Lawson as well, although he was embedded in the Short team.

The only thing very similar to this was Test Match Special on cricket on radio for hours on hours.

If Peter Svidler was very effective as a commentator on the Sochi match, it's obvious enough where he got his inspiration. Many years ago when reviewing the TV coverage of Wimbledon, Clive James spoke of the need for a rain commentary. In other words to continue broadcasting when nothing was happening. Similarly commentators on chess games need this skill. Arguably this was mastered no later than the 1986 KvK in London and probably back in 1983 for the qualifying KvK match.

Channel 4 gave extensive coverage to the 1993 match, as they did to England v Australia at cricket in 1995. In both cases they build an audience and public interest and then walked away.

[Stewart Reuben]

Chess on TV 1993-5
Candidates Final 1993 Short N Timman J Hartston, King
On the Line
Introduction to World Championship 1993 BBC and Channel 4 Documentary
Kasparov’s Winning Moves Simul for charity 1993
On the Line,Red Squares
1993 Pre-match report
World Championship 1993 Full match Kasparov G Short N Keene + Daniel King + Speelman + Cathy Forbes
Channel 4 1993 Kasparov + Short Commentators All THAT IS THE BEST PROGRAMME in my opinion
Channel 4 1993 speed Kasparov G v Short N
Match summary
Kasparov Interview
Intel Speed Chess 1993-4 Maurice Ashley, Danny King
Intel Rapidplay 1994 Ashley, King
Intel Rapidplay 1994-5 Ashley, King
World Championship 1995 Kasparov G Anand V Ashley, King

And that was that on British TV for competitive chess. I suspect Channel 4 were very disappointed in the viewing figures for their coverage of the 1993 match. Their structure was all wrong. They started the programmes at the start of play and had a full hour of the first hour. How boring! To fit in with afternoon TV, the games should have started one hour earlier and the TV programmes at the same time. Also Short going 0.5 - 3.5 down after 4 games was a real turn-off. If only he hadn't left his clock en prise in the first game.

For those of you who have forgotten, following the 1986 match, there were about 100 chess programmes on Thames TV.

[Richard Bates]

On BBC missing out on Short v Kasparov very short memory.

They still did "Match of the Day" style commentary. From memory they had Hartston, Norwood and one of the female Newsnight presenters (Kirsty Walk?). Did they also have Keene's crony Divinsky? They managed to get Campomanes in for an interview, but I don't think David N and Bill H were quite up to the Paxman standard. I think they had future ECF President Dominic Lawson as well, although he was embedded in the Short team.

I have a vague memory that, in true BBC "even-handed" style, their programme covered the 'official' Karpov-Timman World championship match at the same time.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Chess featured in the "headline" round of "Have I Got News For You" last night. An extended version of HIGNFY will be shown at 10.35 on Monday evening on BBC1.

[Ian Kingston]

From memory they had Hartston, Norwood and one of the female Newsnight presenters (Kirsty Walk?).

Not Kirsty Wark, but Francine Stock. She was very good as I recall, asking questions that made sense to chess players as well as the general public and giving the impression that she had at the very least prepared thoroughly.

[Jonathan Bryant]

On BBC missing out on Short v Kasparov very short memory. They lost the TV rights. Channel 4 & a rather young Carol Vorderman & live coverage of whole match. GMs commentary.

Bill Hartston once told me (see interview here: http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... peaks.html) that C4 denied BBC any broadcasting rights ... so Beeb sent a man into audience undercover and with a pinhole camera just so they could get the moves.

... We weren’t transmitting the pictures of course but during the first game of the match the only source we had for the moves of the game were this guy’s pinhole camera and the Channel 4 teletext. There was a BBC van outside the Savoy where interviews could be done and since they were doing one at the time we couldn’t get the pinhole camera thing because they only had one line to transmit stuff to us.

So David Norwood and I were doing the commentary for the first game and the only source for the moves we had was teletext and there was one move that was wrong. We were broadcasting as though we were watching the game live and up came this move that just made no sense. I just guessed. I looked at the ones after it and guessed what the move was, fully prepared to go back on it if necessary. It was the only thing to do and fortunately I’d guessed right and we got through.

When we finished the programme Norwood just looked at me and said ‘That was amazing. Well done.’ He said when he saw the wrong move come up on the teletext he thought ‘That’s it. We’re f**ked.’ (laughs)

[Stewart Reuben]

1986 Ray Keene and I met the researcher from Thames TV for the first time. He said they wanted to broadcast the event a day later and be the first to announce the result. Also 45 minute programmes.
I said, 'Give us £1 million and we can explore whether that is at all possible.' Ray said,' Broadcast the programme that evening and you will be the first to announce the results. Chess is too boring for 45 minutes. The programme should be 25 minutes.'
The researcher thanked us and left. Ray and I looked at each other and said, 'Well, that's blown chess on commercial TV for another 25 years'.
Some weeks later Ray phoned me and said the researcher came back and said, 'We had the idea of doing 25 minute programmes the same evening'. Ray, being so much better at these things than me said, 'What a good idea.' Why he put up with one hour programmes on Channel 4 in 1993 I have no idea.
And lo, so it came to be, followed by those series I alluded to earlier. In 1986 the BBC also did some programmes.

[Stewart Reuben]

Gotham
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... verse.html

I didn't see this episode of Gotham, a pretty good pre-Batman series.

[Geoff Chandler]

Picked up the best of 'Private Eye' covering 1993. Two items.

[John Upham]

See http://uk.thetruth24.com/post.aspx?id=29728