Chess on Radio 4 at 7pm

[Alex Holowczak]

It has made the homepage of the BBC website, in the "weird and wonderful" section.

[Ian Kingston]

Direct link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8266220.stm

[Alex Holowczak]

Direct link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8266220.stm

The page is linked-to in my post if you clicked "it", that's why it was blue...

[Gavin Strachan]

K K match. If it were Anand and Aronian you get A A. Two anonymous players to the public due the BBC's lack of current coverage (TV in general). K K are still famous and I suppose small steps into TV coverage are being made slowly. Karpov is more likely to wash his hair than win.

[Ian Kingston]

Direct link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8266220.stm

The page is linked-to in my post if you clicked "it", that's why it was blue...

Sorry Alex – too small and lacking in contrast for me to see it without looking closely.

[Carl Hibbard]

The TV appearance might not happen - the car hasn't arrived yet and it's 18:38!

A global star just appeared on C4 news...

[Alex Holowczak]

The TV appearance might not happen - the car hasn't arrived yet and it's 18:38!

A global star just appeared on C4 news...

That might explain why I've just had half a dozen people who know nothing about chess suddenly mention this match to me.

[Carl Hibbard]

Ray Keene made a live appearance as well

[Neill Cooper]

It has made the homepage of the BBC website, in the "weird and wonderful" section.

And also the magazine page, a different article linked to from the home page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8268746.stm

[John Saunders]

A global star just appeared on C4 news...

Carl

You really are too kind. Er... you were referring to me, weren't you?

With typical absence of modesty, I have embedded the clip at http://www.bcmchess.co.uk - I'm glad RDK was also on the programme - he made me look thin and that takes some doing. You can probably find the whole show somewhere on Channel 4's website, to catch RDK's stuff about the KGB being responsible for ending the 1984 match(?!).

I'm really not sure whether all this unexpected publicity will do much good for chess as it is really the dying embers of a 25-year-old story rather than the beginning of anything new. Somewhere on the cutting room floor is a few minutes' worth of my attempts to get the interviewer interested in superstar Magnus Carlsen, the fact that he is now coached by Garry Kasparov and that one day soon we might see a newsworthy face-off against the 'edgy' Hikaru Nakamura of the USA. The interviewer probably sensed that I was grasping at straws - and he might not be wrong.

One reason the story kicked off is because it is a very slow news week. More than one programme producer moaned to me about the LibDem conference, how boring it was and how hard it was to chase down people to talk to at the conference. So I guess the chess story provided the media with a welcome respite from turgid political rhetoric and it wasn't too hard for them to find a few talking heads all too eager to chat about chess.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Nice one John.

Hope that wasn't you playing Black though!

[John Saunders]

Nice one John.

Hope that wasn't you playing Black though!

Yes, I think I should explain that I was the owner of the pudgy forearm making the White moves in that travesty of a game of chess. Interviewer Nicholas Glass was, shall we say, somewhat rusty on the rules. We were only moving pieces around for the sake of the speeded-up 'Keystone Cops' footage but I had to try and get him to play legal moves otherwise my reputation as a chess pundit, already hanging by a thread, would be finished. We were allowed to speak (as sound was not recorded) so when he couldn't think what to do he asked me for advice. I had to answer without visible gestures which would be picked up by the camera. Obviously saying the moves in chess notation was a non-starter so I had to describe the moves in plain English ("move the queen one square to your right" etc). This wasn't always successful and at one point he played the theoretical novelty Bc8-c6. I am glad to see that was edited out.

[Justin Hadi]

Good to see more chess on TV!

[Ian Kingston]

You can probably find the whole show somewhere on Channel 4's website, to catch RDK's stuff about the KGB being responsible for ending the 1984 match(?!).

Tracked down at http://link.brightcove.com/services/pla ... 1529573111. Scroll down the list of clips until you get to the last one.

Or go to the BCM link, which John updated moments after I posted.

[John Saunders]

I've now found a longer version of the TV clip which includes Ray Keene's studio comments to Jon Snow. I've replaced the earlier clip at http://www.bcmchess.co.uk with this longer version.