English Chess Forum

A while back there was some talk of a programme being made about the British junior championships. Did anybody who was in Canterbury know if the cameras showed up?

Peter Williams was videoed. A lot.

Jonathan Bryant wrote:A while back there was some talk of a programme being made about the British junior championships. Did anybody who was in Canterbury know if the cameras showed up?

There were cameras present on some of the days. I don't know about the British junior championships, much of the filming seemed to concentrate on junior players in the British Championship proper.

IM Jack Rudd wrote:Peter Williams was videoed. A lot.

Well they had to. They just never knew when that first win might crop up out of the blue Luckily he ran into the bottom seed in round 11. I found it vaguely amusing that when i played him i was told that the cameras would be "unobtrusive". As he neared victory in round 11 the camera practically had a seat at the board

The programme which Jonathan refers to was by the BBC - don't know what happened with this. The filming which took place was by Wall to Wall on behalf of Channel 4. The filming was approved by the ECF and all those playing were made aware that a film crew were on site and filming.

Richard - You forgot to mention that you and Peter have played twice and drawn twice once in this tournament on a live broadcast I believe. The programme makers were most interested that Peter had drawn with Black against an IM and have some lovely close ups of this game the filming of which you agreed to. I hope the book you bought on the last day at the congress addresses your weaknesses

Jonathan Bryant wrote:A while back there was some talk of a programme being made about the British junior championships. Did anybody who was in Canterbury know if the cameras showed up?

This project was cancelled.

Any idea why Adam

Carol Williams wrote:Any idea why Adam

I think it was due to lack of subjects who were willing to take part, but don't quote me on that!

Adam Raoof wrote:...don't quote me on that!

I've just posted on another thread about the official disapproval which caused Carl so many problems two years ago.

Now we have an ECF Director who posts on here asking not to be quoted.

I guess that shows we've come a long way since those dark days.

Carol Williams wrote:The programme which Jonathan refers to was by the BBC - don't know what happened with this. The filming which took place was by Wall to Wall on behalf of Channel 4. The filming was approved by the ECF and all those playing were made aware that a film crew were on site and filming.

Richard - You forgot to mention that you and Peter have played twice and drawn twice once in this tournament on a live broadcast I believe. The programme makers were most interested that Peter had drawn with Black against an IM and have some lovely close ups of this game the filming of which you agreed to. I hope the book you bought on the last day at the congress addresses your weaknesses

Reluctantly agreed to (although i wasn't actually formally asked). I knew i'd let myself get distracted, but I thought it would be a bit churlish to deny the camera woman her fun. Still i knuckled down, swapped off all the pieces and made sure i didn't lose! Shame that with hindsight I torpedoed my chances of winning at the same time When was the other game? A Richmond rapidplay sometime?

I didn't buy a book on the last day, so i'll just have to carry on playing very badly

Well Richard I wish I could qualify for the British!

Adam is quite correct the proposed BBC2 1 hour programme to be shot around the British 2010 was cancelled after the programme makers had spent some considerable time on the project. This had nothing to do with the ChildGenius programmes in which Peter Williams features.
The reason they gave up was because they could not find enough volunteers of the 'right' types to take part. They wanted players under 14 who were likely to win a major championship who spoke English well who had not been used for previous programmes. It was very disappointing that it fell through. But I was proud of the parents who were understandably concerned about possibly undesirable exposure and the children who had such an objective view of their prospects.
Stewart Reuben

Stewart Reuben wrote:Adam is quite correct the proposed BBC2 1 hour programme to be shot around the British 2010 was cancelled after the programme makers had spent some considerable time on the project. This had nothing to do with the ChildGenius programmes in which Peter Williams features.
The reason they gave up was because they could not find enough volunteers of the 'right' types to take part. They wanted players under 14 who were likely to win a major championship who spoke English well who had not been used for previous programmes. It was very disappointing that it fell through. But I was proud of the parents who were understandably concerned about possibly undesirable exposure and the children who had such an objective view of their prospects.
Stewart Reuben

W*****s!!!!!!

We offered to take part with Imogen but they were unwilling to travel to North Wales for all the prep-work they wanted to do. Imogen went on to win the Under10s Female Championship!!!

We were incredibly accomodating to them and astonished at their attitude.

To Andrew Camp
That is very interesting. They told me they had not found enough people of interest to them to make the programme. I had pointed them in the direction of girls as their probability of winning a Championship was higher.
I suspect they wanted to make the programme about geeks so that they could poke fun at them and were disappointed that our players are so normal and so objctive about their chances.
Had they told me initially they were solely interested in children I might have turned their attention to the British Land UK Chess Challenge. They seemed totally uninterested in the idea of David Howell who, at that time was a likely contestant, a red hot favourite to retain his title and highly articulate.
Stewartr Reuben

I know this is a thread about a chess documentary that didn't get made, but does anyone have a list of TV documentaries that were made about chess, and which ones are available and worth trying to watch if they do come up. Not just ones about junior chess, and not just English chess, but any factual programme-making about chess anywhere in the world. The last one I saw was the one about Kasparov and computer chess - which I found a bit confusing.