Chess Masters: the Endgame

[Nick Ivell]

I took a look at the Master Game and it was all much higher level. Tony Miles was brilliant; you got a real insight into how it feels to have a lousy position.

I learnt something. I will learn nothing from the current iteration.

[Jon Mahony]

I take it Bill Hartston was not one of the viewers this time. (Actually, is he still with the show?)

I’ve a feeling they axed him - always found it amusing, most thought the scrabble champion he was sat with was his gay lover - of course the decor around them didn’t help.

[Ian Thompson]

I’ve a feeling they axed him

Apparently so.

At, maybe, the other end of the TV scale, your most recent appearances have been as one of the TV viewers on Gogglebox. How did that come about?

After the first series they felt they were missing intelligent rationality and that they should try and find some lively bright lunatics. My friend Josef – the former world Cluedo champion – was recommended to them and they liked the look of him but his wife didn’t want to be on the series. I happened to bump into him the next day. He asked me to go on with him. I said, ‘Is it total rubbish?’. He said, ‘I think so’. And I said, ‘Definitely.’

What was a show you both loved to talk about on Gogglebox?

That was the trouble – their choice of programmes was drifting away from things we felt able to comment on. They started using us less. They filmed us once watching Mastermind. One of the contestants had Bobby Fischer as his specialist subject. I was sitting there, rattling off the answers and scored one more than the contestant. But they didn’t use any of it on the show because all the others were completely blank throughout.

But they changed the method of filming it during Covid: they had to have outside broadcast trucks in the street and my road didn’t really allow for that, so we were gradually phased out.

[Roger de Coverly]

There's another Guardian review, this one more in favour.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... ame-review

I was disappointed not to see an eccentric genius among the players, such as the old Russian master David Bronstein, who is said to have begun one game by staring at the board for 50 minutes without touching a piece, though admittedly that might not make great TV. But I’m punching my clock and waiting for the showrunners to make their next move. So far, so good. No need to go back to square one.

[NickFaulks]

I learnt something. I will learn nothing from the current iteration.

Of course you won't, but you and I are not in the target audience. I watched once because I felt I should make the sacrifice of half an hour, but knew I would not do so again.

To be honest, I cannot imagine being so bad at any game as to be interested in a show about it aimed at this level. Perhaps I underestimate my ignorance of, say, Minecraft.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

FWIW, the episode outlines are now available up to episode three, so some more clues as to how the quarterfinal and semifinal line-ups is decided (it looks like you spend 3 episodes on each of the two halves of 6 players (episodes 3 and 6 being the "quarter-finals"), reducing them to the right number for the "semi-finals" in episode 7, and presumably the final in the final episode. It doesn't have to make sense.

Episode 1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028x4b

Sue Perkins hosts this high-stakes chess contest, following 12 rising stars of the UK’s booming chess community as they battle it out via a gauntlet of brain-bending puzzles and nail-biting eliminators to be crowned champion.

In the first of two heats, six talented players from across the UK arrive at Cardiff’s former coal exchange. They face a brain-boggling puzzle and a high-stakes speed chess battle.

Episode 2

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00293sc

The five remaining players from the first heat return to the Great Hall to battle it out for a place in the quarter-finals.

[I think the blurb writer was on strike?]

Episode 3

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029ct9

The four remaining players from the first heat return to the Great Hall to battle it out for a coveted place in the semi-finals. They are faced with a giant projection screen, and realise an innovative challenge awaits - a memory test set by the world number one chess player, Magnus Carlsen.

[Paul Cooksey]

I'm enraged!

I paused the tv to do the first challenge (place 8 queens on a board not attacking each other and controlling all squares). When I restarted they did not tell me the winning time! Argh! I risked a swat raid from irate arbiters for nothing! (upturned rooks)

[Ian Thompson]

I would say tonight's episode was an improvement on last week. It's a pity they didn't say how long it took Caitlin to solve the 8 queens problem so people trying it at home could see how they compared to her if they were also able to solve it. (It's not something I've ever tried before and it took me about 2 minutes to solve it, although I wasn't timing it precisely, I was just looking at my computer's clock.)

It also occurred to me that they could improve the replay of the elimination game if they showed the current board position on a small board in the corner of the screen when they were getting reactions from the commentators.

[Mick Norris]

I watched the full verion of the eliminator; am I right that g10+5" is quicker than last week which I think was g15+5"?

[Neill Cooper]

So far the women are doing better than the men!
There was a 10 minute article on Radio 4 Woman's Hour today :
"A new TV series, Chess Masters, started last week on BBC2. It’s badged as Bake Off with kings and queens. Camilla Lewis, the woman behind the new show, was inspired to create it by her teenage daughter, Jasmine, who became obsessed with the game during lockdown. They join Nuala to talk about how to turn a board game into must-watch television."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00291y3 starting at 48:20

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I am afraid I failed to see how quickly I was able to to the 8 Queens Challenge. But it was interesting to see how difficult the contestants found it.

What we learnt: Cai is indeed an impulsive chess player and prone to blunders. Navi is more solid, but I doubt he will make it through next week (though he is paired with Claire the Killer Queen in the consultation game, so maybe there is hope).

What about the Pawn Race puzzle. I should know if this is a draw with best play. I think it is. Both kings end up having to shuffle around after the pawn moves run out, but maybe I am missing a forced zugzwang somewhere. It is a great pity that both of those 'games' ended with early blunders. I was hoping for a stalemate!

[It is likely, IMO, that if a stalemate had occurred, they got the players to redo a different set of moves for the camera. But maybe they will show a stalemate at some point for educational purposes.]

I think Claire and Lula are stronger players than Caitlin, but it is difficult to be sure. We have seen so little of Caitlin's play.

[Roger de Coverly]

What about the Pawn Race puzzle. I should know if this is a draw with best play. I think it is. Both kings end up having to shuffle around after the pawn moves run out, but maybe I am missing a forced zugzwang somewhere.

One position that looks logical to reach is this

8/8/5p2/Pk4p1/1P4Kp/2P5/8/8 w - - 0 1

But does White win with c4+ ? Whilst Black can use the identical trick but when White promotes on a8 it controls a1.

(edit) Perhaps Black just retreats the King (/edit)

But perhaps you can get this position where both can promote.

8/8/7p/Pk4p1/1P3pK1/2P5/8/8 w - - 0 1

One piece of GM advice (Soltis I think) was to always avoid King and pawn endings unless you were absolutely sure they were trivial.

[Ian Thompson]

I am afraid I failed to see how quickly I was able to to the 8 Queens Challenge. But it was interesting to see how difficult the contestants found it.

Looking at the board positions that were being set up, I think some of them failed to immediately realise that the solution must be one queen on each rank and one queen on each file which, to my mind, leads you to try separating the queens on adjacent files by knight's moves.

I think Claire and Lula are stronger players than Caitlin, but it is difficult to be sure. We have seen so little of Caitlin's play.

We know that Lula's FIDE rating is currently 31 points higher than Caitlin's (1673 vs. 1642), so she is the stronger player, but by an insignificant amount.

I'd say Claire is likely to be the weakest of the three based on her losing a piece after 7 moves, to a one move blunder, in her game last week against Caitlin. Navi's two games against Cai suggest to me that he's not as good as Lula or Caitlin.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

David is getting more camera time than Anthony, which I think is good for the programme. David mostly gets the better lines as well.

I do feel the need to fact check David's "92 solutions from 4 billion possibilities"...

Sue Perkins comedy watch: something about wanting to do "an expressive dance to show how I feel about queens".

Can anyone tell if David is getting about the same camera time as Sue Perkins?

[Ian Thompson]

I watched the full verion of the eliminator;

Draw by 5 fold repetition, when there were numerous White queen checks on e5, I think.