Master Game on YouTube.

[Ray Sayers]

I could understand the BBC claiming copyright infringement if they were going to repeat it or merchandise it somehow, e.g. by releasing it on dvd. But if not, then it seems petty. If that's what happened. I'd be interested to know what happened - it may be some other reason.

(Edited for spelling)

[Stewart Reuben]

Theoretically they would have to ask permission of all the participants. They just can't be bothered to do such work for anything.
Arguably the most serious loss is of the audio tape of Fischer + Barden v Penrose + Clarke. I remember that as a gem. It wouldn't be surprising if someone, somewhere had recorded it and still has it.
The chess collection at Hastings University has a large number of programmes from my personal collection. They won't advertise them because of copyright infringement. But you can view them, if you make a special request.
I think the British Film Institute may have some that I don't have. John Macdonald says he has them, in his garage on video tape somewhere. John Henderson was sent the complete set and has jut sat on them. He was supposed to copy them and return them to Britain.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Stewart,

John has never got back to me to tell me what happened to these beta tapes.
It's not that I 've been hiding anywhere. I pretty easy to contact on the net my
email address has been the same for the past 12 years and I have appealed
for him to contact me on here, the CS site and to The Scotsman where he has a column.
Nothing.

A contact with a chess player whose wife worked in the BBC archives
came to nothing as well. All we have left now is the memory.

A mass write in may work, but I fear the only way the Beeb will be interested
is if you make it a Chess & Cookery program.

I bet you are right, someone, somewhere will have the 'Fischer Tapes'.
I'm an avid listener to DAB radio 4 and a lot of their stuff has been sent in by
listeners who recorded the original. Maybe an appeal to them to ask if anyone
has it may work.

Ask them to send it to John Henderson......

[Ray Sayers]

A mass write in may work, but I fear the only way the Beeb will be interested
is if you make it a Chess & Cookery program.

Lol. It's funny because it's so true

[Matthew Turner]

Ray Sayers wrote
A banker, a Daily Mail reader and a benefit claimant are sitting at a table sharing 12 biscuits. The banker takes 11 and says to the Daily Mail reader: “Watch out for the benefit claimant, he wants your biscuit”.

Ditto

[Clive Blackburn]

A mass write in may work, but I fear the only way the Beeb will be interested
is if you make it a Chess & Cookery program.

That would work I think, they could make cup cakes with the piece designs on and the demonstration board would have squares of white and dark chocolate.

If a player captures a piece then he is allowed to eat it, winner eats the board.

[Stewart Reuben]

Of course we have had cakes with edible pieces and boards. When Nigel Short was rather young, he ate such a chocolate piece before the photos had been taken, much to the annoyance of the chef.
One Phillips & Drew the pieces were cheese.
One Hastings, the pairing number for the all-play all were pasted to the underside of the piece. The first player selected a white piece and moved it. If it wasn't one of the 10 with a number, he selected another black piece and this continued until all 10 numbers came up. Of course numbers 1-5 get 5 whites. So the 5 numbers were distributed 3 for one colour and 2 for the other.
The moves of the game cannot be found on chessbase.
Again Hastings. The cake celebrating the marriage of Ben Finegold and Gina Lynn was crowned by a chess set.

Clive, surely the loser would have to eat the chessboard, not the winner.

[John Hickman]

[Stewart Reuben]

Before somebody mentions one with bottles of alcoholic drinks, I'll point out that wouldn't be suitable for most cookery programmes.

[Clive Blackburn]

Clive, surely the loser would have to eat the chessboard, not the winner.

It would depend how much the winner liked chocolate

[Dave Ewart]

I could understand the BBC claiming copyright infringement if they were going to repeat it or merchandise it somehow, e.g. by releasing it on dvd. But if not, then it seems petty. If that's what happened. I'd be interested to know what happened - it may be some other reason.

(Edited for spelling)

It's a great shame they've been taken down: and, especially petty given that (I think I heard) the BBC don't even have the recordings in their own archives any more.

If that's the case, then removing them is simply cultural/historical vandalism

[Colin Patterson]

The BBC do seem very slapdash and irresponsible with their archive material. I recall in the Bob Monkhouse documentary of a few years ago, his personal VT archive had restored a huge amount of important historical comedy material that the Beeb had, in their wisdom, recorded over in a bid to save money on new tapes. One was Lenny Henry's first TV appearance. More recently, someone appeared on Antiques Roadshow with a load of audio tapes in big metal canisters that the experts said were valuable. Where did they find them? In a skip outside Broadcasting House if memory serves.

[Stewart Reuben]

I am told that there has been an agreement to release the Mastergame material that is available.

[Dave Ewart]

I am told that there has been an agreement to release the Mastergame material that is available.

You mean a DVD released by the BBC? Excellent news, if so

[Stewart Reuben]

I think it is an independent company, licensed by the BBC.
Like Impala (Ray Keene) bought the rights to the Thames TV programmes.