Many years after the favored TV present The Grasp Sport, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) plans to broadcast a brand new chess present. In Chess Masters, to be aired in 2025, gamers of various ages and backgrounds will go face to face in a collection of fast video games for the title of Chess Grasp.

The Grasp Sport was a profitable program on British tv between 1976 and 1983 through which the general public might watch grandmasters play in an actual match whereas listening to their voices as they’d clarify their ideas and their strikes. It was offered by Jeremy James and had professional evaluation from Leonard Barden and, later, IM Invoice Hartston.

In a approach, the TV present was a predecessor of the modern-day chess broadcasts and streams on the Web, albeit at a slower tempo. However the principle visuals had been the identical: cameras exhibiting the gamers, at instances the commentators, and a chessboard with animated collectible figurines and transfer notation—a extremely modern idea for tv within the late Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties.

Episode 11 from season 6 of The Grasp Sport.

That was a time when the BBC was driving the wave of the chess increase instigated by GM Bobby Fischer. A brand new chess peak was seen within the UK in 1993, through the PCA World Championship between GMs Garry Kasparov and Nigel Brief. Though Channel 4 had the reside broadcasting rights and offered the principle present, the BBC had their very own protection that included FIDE’s title match between GMs Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman.

Three a long time later, the BBC is again within the sport. Chess has skilled one other surge in recognition due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Netflix collection The Queen’s Gambit, and widespread streamers comparable to IM Levy Rozman and GM Hikaru Nakamura. And so, the time is ripe for the BBC to revive the idea of bringing chess to TV and include a brand new chess program.

Produced by Curve Media and commissioned by BBC’s Factual Leisure division, Chess Masters will see eight episodes subsequent yr on BBC2 through which highly-skilled gamers from all backgrounds will battle it out throughout a collection of fast video games earlier than one might be topped the title of Chess Grasp.

Catherine Catton, Head of Commissioning, Factual Leisure and Reside Occasions, stated: “In a market of competitions that commemorate bodily feats we’re actually excited to again an concept that foregrounds technique and smart-thinking. Curve has devised a format that makes chess each entertaining and accessible for all.”

Curve has devised a format that makes chess each entertaining and accessible for all.

—Catherine Catton, Head of Commissioning, Factual Leisure and Reside Occasions

On this new present, there appears to be an emphasis on the inclusion of gamers from totally different ages and backgrounds. “We’re delighted to be making this heat, inclusive and intelligent collection, the place the emotional in addition to strategic stakes are excessive,” stated Camilla Lewis, Government Producer for Curve Media. “There may be untapped expertise on the market. Amateurs from 8 to 80 will get the chance to compete with the perfect and the viewers will get distinctive insights into the psychological and sensible gameplay of this age-old however extremely accessible sport performed by all cultures and by individuals of every kind.”

We’re delighted to be making this heat, inclusive and intelligent collection, the place the emotional in addition to strategic stakes are excessive.

—Camilla Lewis, Government Producer for Curve Media

A humorous twist to the story comes from IM Malcolm Pein, the English Chess Federation’s Director of Worldwide Chess. He was quoted within the press launch saying: “When Taylor Swift waxes lyrical about chess openings in her newest album, you understand chess has turn into cool. The world’s oldest sport has developed right into a 24/7 365 exercise in addition to a giant cash e-sport that has enchantment throughout the generations. The way in which chess virtually uniquely crosses all boundaries of age, intercourse, language and tradition satisfied me that our nationwide broadcaster is its pure residence.”

Pein will need to have spoken to the BBC shortly after seeing a tweet from WCM Tallulah Roberts the place the chess streamer jokingly prompt that chess lyrics could be discovered on Swift’s newest album The Tortured Poets Division.

omg I can’t consider these are actual lyrics from the brand new Taylor Swift album pic.twitter.com/jsBKY43cwu

— lula (@lularobs) April 20, 2024

Pein had retweeted the tweet and later admitted that he had fallen for it. “My subsequent tv look might be in a brand new present entitled ‘I have been memed’,” he wrote on X. Roberts then identified that Swift had used chess lyrics in older songs.

It’s okay, there are literally 2 Taylor Swift songs that discuss chess. 1 is “pricey John”, Taylor sings “I lived in your chess sport however you modified the principles day-after-day”, extra just lately on “mastermind” Taylor sings “checkmate, I couldn’t lose”. you had been solely memed on a technicality

— lula (@lularobs) April 24, 2024

Replace: an earlier model of this text prompt that the 1993 Kasparov-Brief match was solely lined by Channel 4 however the BBC mentioned it as nicely in their very own night program.