English Chess Forum

Having watched the various late night poker TV shows, I wonder if late night chess might be of interest?

Does late night poker appeal to those who might like to take up poker but haven't yet? Maybe Stewart Rueben could comment authoritatively on this?

Provided it was tightly edited and presented (a Steve Davis / Andrew Martin double act) then chess could work provided that :

The games were Blitz or bullet with a commentary.

There was some focus on the individual players and that those chosen were socially acceptable to Joe Public.

There was interactive betting functionality on the blitz games

There was a beginners feature of around 5 minutes

There was a glamour element maybe with Kostenuik comparing the show.

Perhaps a feature on a recent exotically located tournament by Judith Chalmers (!)

In short, with enough variety and not too much technical chess (nothing on Q vs R endings for example) it could be made to work.

John

John, I just thought I should point out to you that a very interesting debate on this very same topic has been 'raging on' for more than 3 months now in the 'general chat' section of the forum. Your point has been made already I believe, but it is still a very valid and interesting one.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/c ... 514247.stm

See http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4808

John

There was more Chess on TV today than for some considerable time...

1. Weakest Link : Grandmaster and FIDE Master are titles bestowed on what type of game player?

A person whose name I've forgotten gave the correct answer.

2. Eggheads : The Elo system is a scale of rating for a. Chess Players, b. Typists, c. Airline Pilots

The team of Slightly Foxed (unfortunately) chose Typists who I thought were measured on the PItman scale. Is it not known if CJ de Mooi would have known the correct answer

So that will be our allowance for the year I suppose.

Another chess question on "The Weakest Link" today.

The correct answer was (Nigel) Short : What was the question?

The question was : About whom did God once say : ' Oh, he only THINKS he is a cricketer' ?

Maybe we can recruit Gabi of the "Cheeky Girls" who is apparently a keen chess player !!

The Daily Mail wrote:She could talk knowledgeably about so many subjects – including ... her experience growing up under the politics of Soviet Eastern Europe. She is also a skilled chess player and a very witty lady.

She and fiance Lembit Opik (LibDem MP) apparently spent their evenings in front of the fireplace playing chess !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -girl.html

Did anyone catch that one-off on BBC4 a few months ago? It featured Keene, King, Howell and others, basically explaining the basics, which a few shorts on the different forms of Chess (such as blitz and CC)

Mostly it wasn’t that interesting, but there was a tiny clip of Master Game - a Young Short playing Miles, which was nice to see.

I agree with other posters - the amount of garbage that goes on these Sky channels, there must be room for a bit of Chess somewhere - doesn’t have to be live, that way the long waits between moves could be edited out.

Seeing Tony Miles's brown leather jacket and wavey, side-swept, 70s hair again were moments of nostalgia I would happily have skipped.

I was good to see Bill Hartston again, back as I remember him, and catch ancient glimpses of Jonathan Mestel and Jon Speelman.

There's been quite a bit of discussion on the program over in the other thread.

Anthony Taglione wrote:Seeing Tony Miles's brown leather jacket and wavey, side-swept, 70s hair again were moments of nostalgia I would happily have skipped.

I was good to see Bill Hartston again, back as I remember him, and catch ancient glimpses of Jonathan Mestel and Jon Speelman.

There's been quite a bit of discussion on the program over in the other thread.

I just loved what Miles said to Short "“Congratulations… but don’t make a habit of it!”

I didn't see the other thread, I'll pop in for a look

Jon Mahony wrote: I just loved what Miles said to Short "“Congratulations… but don’t make a habit of it!”

He did, though

Matt Mackenzie wrote:

Jon Mahony wrote: I just loved what Miles said to Short "“Congratulations… but don’t make a habit of it!”

He did, though

He did indeed I saw an old newspaper article recently, in which Short hinted that the rivalry got quite bitter on Miles’ part - I’d never heard that before!

Chess features a lot in the TV series criminal minds

Ken Rogoff was interviewed on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning. It was a piece about the BP oil disaster. He compared it to the financial crisis and suggested that other industries need to be regulated in a similar way to financial organisations will be.

OK, it wasn't on TV, and it wasn't about chess, but still interesting, I hope!