Chess Masters: The Endgame, BBC Two’s most ambitious chess programme for half a century, got off to a rocky start on 10 March, when its opening episode received some rough treatment from critics. The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan called it “so dull it’s almost unwatchable”.
However, fears of a second week meltdown last Monday proved overblown. Viewers totalled 710,000, still nearly 6% of the television audience, and online comments were milder, focusing on the overdramatic commentary and the hyping of the players as “rising stars” and “masters”.
The producers would have been on safer ground using “maestro”, as the English Chess Federation allows this term for players performing at a 1400 rating level over a 12-month period.
Touch a piece, move that piece, is a basic chess rule for over-the-board games, but in episode two a player was allowed to touch his rook, then move his king, without comment.
Positively, the on demand Full Match version on iPlayer with David Howell’s commentary has been highly praised, as was the BBC Four programme How to Win at Chess, a rerun of a 2009 programme with advice on improvement from GMs Ray Keene and Daniel King. This includes a rare section on chess boxing, where rounds alternate between the board and the ring until checkmate or knockout.
In Monday’s third episode (BBC Two, 8pm) the second group of six players join the action. The new contestants include Kel, 39, from Bolton, who is an experienced league and tournament player and probably the favourite to win the whole competition.
For readers who would like to explore chess further, the English Chess Federation has an interactive map with the location of your nearest chess club, while details of clubs in Scotland, Wales and Ireland are here, here and here respectively.
Jonah Willow has been England’s outstanding performer in the European Championship at the Romanian Black Sea resort of Eforie Nord, scoring 4/6 against strong opposition. The Nottingham 22-year-old, who already has one GM norm from Fagernes, Norway, last year, made a fine start, defeating a low ranked player in round one, then holding his own with four opponents rated 2600 or higher, before a gritty sixth round win.
Willow halved in round two against Spain’s Jaime Santos, choosing a solid plan with central pressure against the Najdorf Sicilian. Then he won one of the best games of his career against Poland’s Mateusz Bartel, using the rare Burn Variation of the French Defence to exploit White’s inaccuracies and finishing with a clever tactic. To replay the Bartel v Willow game, click the menu at the bottom right of the link, scroll down to replay mode, then choose fast or slow as you prefer.
In round four against the strong Ukrainian Yuri Kuzubov, Willow opted for a well known drawing line in the Four Knights with multiple exchanges, but in round five he was beaten by Turkey’s Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, at age 13 the youngest ever 2600-rated player.
In Thursday’s sixth round Willow scored a hard-fought win where he cleverly utilised opposite coloured bishops to attack his opponent’s king. With 4/6 and five rounds to go after Friday’s rest day, Willow remains well in contention for his second GM norm. His tournament performance rating (TPR) is 2593, very close to the 2600 needed.
Shreyas Royal, 16, England’s youngest ever grandmaster, is on 3/6 after being paired with two of the top 10 seeds. The Greenwich teenager drew well with Armenia’s Shant Sargsyan, lost narrowly to Germany’s Frederik Svane, then had a sixth round setback against the Slovenian, Maksym Goroshkov, who sacrificed a knight for a crushing attack on the king.
Yang-Fan Zhou, aiming for his third and final GM norm, has 3.5/6, although against weaker opposition. Zhou scored a good draw in round six against the Italian GM Daniele Vocatero, but his TPR is only 2430, so that his norm chances are now slender. The same goes for Sohum Lohia, 16, England’s No 2 junior after Royal, who also has 3.5/6, but with a TPR of only 2146 against the 2450 needed for his third and final IM norm.
3964: 1 Qf6+! Bxf6 2 gxf6+ Kxf6 (if 2…Kf8? 3 Rxd8 mate) 3 Ne4+ Ke7 4 Nxc5 and White wins with his extra knight.
