Chess Masters: the Endgame

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Lovely story, Jon.

I did like Deema's mild rebuke of Kel after the blunder.

"Please can we wait and think before moving". Or something like that. Exact quote may be posted later.

At that point, I was rooting for Deema to beat Kel in the Eliminator!

[Mick Norris]

I think Thalia did well pairing Deema and Kel together

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Maybe consultation chess will catch on...

Obviously in the jazz/rock/pop music venues, not the staid, boring church hall clubs!

There are probably some great videos online of trash-talking pairs of titled players playing each other.

If not, there should be!

[Nick Ivell]

Fair review from Luke in the Spectator. He likes it more than me but 'light as choux pastry' stands out.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I can probably rustle up a copy of the Spectator review. Is it the whole column or a few paragraphs?

Leonard Barden's column in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/ ... two-events

BBC Two’s Chess Masters: The Endgame reaches episode seven (of eight) on Easter Monday at 8pm. Audience numbers, supplied by Broadcast, remain rock solid at 600.000, 5% of the viewing audience, and indicative of a significant loyal fan base.

Next Monday’s episode will include an appearance by Bodhana Sivanandan, the Harrow 10-year-old who has become globally famous. Sivanandan is likely to take on all six remaining contestants simultaneously, a feat which will be familiar to her. Here is how, at age eight, she defeated Harrow Chess Club 5-1.

https://www.facebook.com/championschess ... 5646098251

That Facebook link may not work unless logged in (it doesn't work for me).

Here is a link to a Chessbase article showing Bodhana taking part in the simuls at ChessFest 2024 in Trafalgar Square:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/bodhana-s ... -chessfest

[Nick Ivell]

The whole column.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Having now read Luke McShane's review in full, I liked this bit:

Watching mild-mannered folk pipe icing with murder in their eyes is funny. Chess players being competitive fails to strike the same chord.

Though I had always thought there was a high degree of camaraderie in the Bake Off tent? There must be potential to make a chess programme more like Gladiators, more confrontational without risking turning it into anything like chess boxing?

Looking ahead to next week, the preview blurb for the final confirms it will be four people:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002bm36

The four finalists return for the last time to the Great Hall, ready to be put through their chess-playing paces like never before. A series of mind-melting chess challenges awaits, with each one knocking a player out. Just one player is left standing to be crowned chess champion and lift the much-coveted winners’ trophy.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Not having seen the semifinal (Episode 7) yet (being broadcast in just under 2 hours) I left it a bit late to run a poll for who will be eliminated this week. Maybe a poll for the winner, which I might set up tomorrow.

Anyway, from:

Navi
Lula
Caitlin
Kel
Thalia
Richie

I am going to predict that Kel and Thalia are too strong to be eliminated by ordinary means. That Navi's luck will run out, and that Richie is a stronger player than Caitlin, but possibly Lula will win through instead of Caitlin (who is still a bit of a dark horse, unsure of her actual chess strength).

That means I am predicting a final line up of:

Thalia, Kel, Lula and Richie.

Hopefully there are no spoilers anywhere where you can freeze-frame the footage and see who is in the final...

[Mark Hannon]

Was interested in the game where they had to pick pieces totalling up to 24 points. Think it might be best to have Q B B N N N at a fast time limit like here.
What do you think I read somewhere that 2 Queens duplicate some squares ?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I think where you place the pieces you pick on the starting array also a factor. It was very, very annoying that they did not slow down the 'action' enough to show us the different combinations of pieces selected by each contestant and where they put them on the starting rank!

I think you can reveal your pieces one by one as your opponent places pieces. Not sure how that works if you pick a different number of pieces. David Howell might need to codify the rules a bit (it is similar to Chess960 where you choose your starting array).

Felt sorry for the player eliminated by being checkmated in fewest moves. Not a great way to go. Have not named them in case people have not watched it yet and want to avoid spoilers.

New contender for most cringeworthy line so far:

Bodhana showing off her vast array of checkmates.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Was interested in the game where they had to pick pieces totalling up to 24 points. Think it might be best to have Q B B N N N at a fast time limit like here.
What do you think I read somewhere that 2 Queens duplicate some squares ?

I wonder how long they had to choose their combination.
You were allowed more than one queen, so I am assuming that, e.g. 4 rooks, or 8 knights allowed (*).

EDIT: Slowing it down, the array you could select your army from was: 7N, 7B, 4R, 2Q.

Q=9, R=5, B=3, N=3.

1. Thalia vs Lula
2. Caitlin vs Richie
3. Navi vs Kel

Starting positions
Board 1: 6-man vs 6-man army (both 24 points)
Lula: bnnqkbn1 (h8=empty square)
Thalia: BNBQKBN1 (h1=empty square)

bnnqkbn1/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BNBQKBN1

Board 2: 3-man vs 5-man army (both 23 points)
Richie: 2rqkq2 (a8,b8,g8,h8=empty squares)
Caitlin: B1QRKB1B (b2,g1=empty squares)

2rqkq2/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/B1QRKB1B

Board 3: 4-man vs 4-man army (both 24 points)
Kel: 1nq1kqn1 (a8,d8,h8=empty squares)
Navi: 1N1QKQN1 (a1,c1,h1=empty squares)

1nq1kqn1/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/1N1QKQN1

Possible armies that could have been chosen:

3-man armies
Q+Q+R=23 (Richie)

4-man armies
Q+R+R+R=24
Q+Q+N+B=24
Q+Q+B+B=24
Q+Q+N+N=24 (Kel and Navi)
Q+R+R+B=22
Q+R+R+N=22

5-man armies
R+R+R+R+N=23
R+R+R+R+B=23
Q+R+B+B+B=23 (Caitlin)
Q+R+B+B+N=23
Q+R+B+N+N=23
Q+R+N+N+N=23

6-man armies
Q+B+B+B+B+B=24
Q+B+B+B+B+N=24
Q+B+B+B+N+N=24 (Thalia)
Q+B+B+N+N+N=24 (Lula)
Q+B+N+N+N+N=24
Q+N+N+N+N+N=24
R+R+R+B+B+B=24
R+R+R+B+B+N=24
R+R+R+B+N+N=24
R+R+R+N+N+N=24
R+R+B+B+B+B=22
R+R+B+B+B+N=22
R+R+B+B+N+N=22
R+R+B+N+N+N=22
R+R+N+N+N+N=22

7-man armies
R+B+B+B+B+B+B=23
R+B+B+B+B+B+N=23
R+B+B+B+B+N+N=23
R+B+B+B+N+N+N=23
R+B+B+N+N+N+N=23
R+B+N+N+N+N+N=23
R+N+N+N+N+N+N=23
B+B+B+B+B+B+B=21
B+B+B+B+B+B+N=21
B+B+B+B+B+N+N=21
B+B+B+B+N+N+N=21
B+B+B+N+N+N+N=21
B+B+N+N+N+N+N=21
B+N+N+N+N+N+N=21
N+N+N+N+N+N+N=21

I think those 43 combinations are all the possible ones within the constraints (maximum of 7 pieces and total of 24 points). Have I missed any out?

I wonder whether 7 bishops would win against 7 knights?? You would assume that 7 knights is the weakest army, but maybe not? There are some crazy match-ups possible. How would 7 knights do against 2 queens and 1 rook?

A variant of the game would be for one player to pick the combination of pieces, and the other player pick the colour. And you start with the same combination of pieces (but still get to alternately place pieces on the board to avoid 'opening theory').

(*) Actually, the maximum pieces in total allowed is 7, to go alongside the king on the back rank, so 8 knights and 8 bishops and similar combinations of 8 pieces that still total 24 points not allowed.

[Roger de Coverly]

Q+R+B+B+N=23

It was an interesting idea to have same colour Bishops which is not allowed in Chess 960.

It would be useful to know the full rule set to replicate the challenge.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Q+R+B+B+N=23

It was an interesting idea to have same colour Bishops which is not allowed in Chess 960.

It would be useful to know the full rule set to replicate the challenge.

I did not know same-colour Bishops not allowed in Chess 960. I have edited my orignal post to show the starting arrays for the 6 players. Not shown the results (to avoid spoilers) - maybe later in the week. The body language of the three players defeated by Bodhana in the simultaneous was the other thing I noticed (it was nice of David Howell to describe her as "the most feared player in the country"). What Sue Perkins said was also interesting: "she'll most likely win, so this is a game of survival".

Bodhana's sum total of dialogue (as broadcast) was: "It was good" and (to the question 'Did you enjoy it?') "Yes". Great to see her stalking the hall, very professionally dispatching the "Chess Masters".

They were told in advance that fewest moves to checkmate was elimination, so I wonder if they were allowed to count both their own moves and those of the other players? If you had no way of knowing this, you couldn't work out if you needed to try and prolong the game a bit longer. It will be good to see the full games when available.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I did not know same-colour Bishops not allowed in Chess 960."

Bishops have to be on different coloured starting squares, king has to be between the rooks, board is mirror-image, so a1 and a8 have same piece etc.

I think Fischer's (and earlier people's idea) was to just put pieces down at random, but after his meetings with the Polgars, the current rules evolved.

[Mark Hannon]

I think to have a lot of knights is good as at that level with a fast time limit the opponent will fall for a bunch of knight forks.
The Thalia v Lula match up tested that out as Thalia chose 3 bishops and won, but theoretically I’m not convinced that having multiple same coloured bishops is good.