Hope for our society!

[IM Jack Rudd]

I've been on Eggheads, but got all my questions wrong.

[Alex Holowczak]

It was actually a bit surprising to see someone I knew back then, before quiz shows really took off.

Really? I thought the "golden era" of quiz shows was the 1980s and 1990s; certainly 1994 was well within it. There are far fewer quiz shows these days, and they've been overtaken by Reality TV like X Factor, and panel shows like Mock the Week.

In those days you had Bullseye, Big Break, Strike it Lucky/Rich, Crystal Maze, Generation Game, Price is Right, Play Your Cards Right, Sale of the Century, Going for Gold, Blockbusters, Catchphrase, Wipeout... I can remember all of those in my own lifetime!

Nowadays all that's left really is things like Eggheads, Countdown, Who Wants to be a Millionnaire? and Weakest Link (which is about to be killed off).

[Alistair Campbell]

Perhaps I can answer!

Apologies Kevin, I wasn't aware of your celebrity (I have rectified now this through Google and offer my belated congratulations... )

One of my ex-(chess) team mates won £125,000 on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". His £250,000 question was something like "which ex-Soviet leader's name translates as 'Man of Steel' ?". It was too bad that he didn't have a phone-a-friend lifeline left or he could have phoned Keti Arakhamia, another team-mate...

[Phil Makepeace]

I appeared on Countdown 4 years ago. That's your lot. Reckon Only Connect would be a laugh though.

[E Michael White]

In those days you had Bullseye, Big Break, Strike it Lucky/Rich, Crystal Maze, Generation Game, Price is Right, Play Your Cards Right, Sale of the Century, Going for Gold, Blockbusters, Catchphrase, Wipeout...

---- you started the list so why didn't you finish ?

[John Clarke]

A list of people would be quite interesting on those who have been, or are, ECF graded or FIDE Rated, who have appeared on quiz shows.

How far back do you want to go? And how far down the grading list?? I ask because my peak rating, way back in 1973/4, was no higher than 164. Which some might say is too low and too long ago.

However ..... I did win the New Zealand Mastermind title in 1981, taking as my main specialist subject The History of Chess, 1450-1972! (And let's immediately offset that gross bit of skiting by remarking that my appearance the following year in the international was an unmitigated disaster.)

I've been on several other shows as well in NZ and Oz, making a handy few thou along the way, but no six-figure jackpots as yet.

[Alex Holowczak]

In those days you had Bullseye, Big Break, Strike it Lucky/Rich, Crystal Maze, Generation Game, Price is Right, Play Your Cards Right, Sale of the Century, Going for Gold, Blockbusters, Catchphrase, Wipeout...

---- you started the list so why didn't you finish ?

I couldn't think of any more, but reckon there were some.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Apologies Kevin, I wasn't aware of your celebrity"

No problem!

Dave Ledger lost (I think) on Countdown, having a word disallowed which later became legal. But he did win £3000 on Brainteaser. Simon Gillam was on Countdown years ago. There is a very useful site; http://www.thecountdownpage.com/series.htm and if anyone wants to trawl through that, they will probably find a few more chessplayers. I believe Ken Norman did rather well on Brain of Britain (which is radio, but nonetheless impressive.)

[Alistair Campbell]

Simon Gillam was on Countdown years ago.

He was also on Only Connect in 2008 as part of the "Edinburgh Scrabblers" - he has an IMdb entry on the back of it.

And as a scrabbler (is that a real word?) he recently competed in the World Championships mentioned here

[Peter Shaw]

I remember seeing an Only Connect where one of the teams was called 'The chessplayers'. I couldn't find any of them in the grading list. In one of the questions they had to complete the following sequence:

QR,QN,QB,?

They got it wrong!

[Jonathan Rogers]

There was also a chessboxing team on Eggheads - oh, sorry, Stewart was asking about graded/rated players, "real chessplayers" ...

There was a chess team some five or six years ago of Pein, Cox, Jacobs and Hartston which lost to another random team of friends who played under some banner or other on TV. Sorry, I've even forgotten the name of the programme. The chess players were winning until the end (!)

Felix Kwiatkowski apparently once went very far on 15-1 but could not answer how far the penalty spot should be from the goal.

[Stewart Reuben]

Peter Shaw >I remember seeing an Only Connect where one of the teams was called 'The chessplayers'. I couldn't find any of them in the grading list. In one of the questions they had to complete the following sequence:
QR,QN,QB,?
They got it wrong!<

CJ solved that mystery for me. It was a team of quizzers. They simply chose the name without actually being real chessplayers. One team member muttered that he was only familiar with algebraic notation. The opposing team found it hilarious as they gave the answer Q immediately. Quizmaster Victoria Coren said to me she thought perhaps the question was a little unfair, but I disagreed.

[Ian Kingston]

I think (and he'll no doubt correct me if I'm wrong) that Neil Graham was on Fifteen to One.

[Roger de Coverly]

There was a chess team some five or six years ago of Pein, Cox, Jacobs and Hartston which lost to another random team of friends who played under some banner or other on TV. Sorry, I've even forgotten the name of the programme.

A special "professionals/occupations" series of University Challenge I believe.

Former local club member Bob Ginger http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=111270D did well on "Millionaire" a few years back.

[Phil Neatherway]

Felix Kwiatkowski apparently once went very far on 15-1 but could not answer how far the penalty spot should be from the goal.

I believe Feliks also did well on Brain of Britain many years ago.