Chess Masters: The Endgame
Synopsis
Twelve rising stars in the UK's chess community battle it out to be crowned champion. The twelve are divided into two groups of six, and we get three episodes devoted to each group. Each episode eliminates one player, and the six standing after the group phase come together to compete in the last two episodes.
Within each episode there are three rounds, and they vary over the series. First round in the first heat of each group pairs the players off at random and has them play speed chess, the three winners are safe while the three losers are then set a puzzle. The person who solves it best or quickest (depending on the puzzle) survives, then the other two play speed chess again and the loser is eliminated. The second starts with a puzzle round; the best/fastest player is safe while the other four play a speed game in teams of two. The losing pair then face off against each other in the elimination match. With four players left in the group, the last heat starts with a memorisation test, and the best performer gets to pick their partner for a two-vs-two match, the losing pair then playing the elimination game.
The final phase brings back the six players still standing. First, they are paired off at random and play "War and pieces", where each player gets to choose their own back row of pieces; the three losers then play against 9-year-old chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan - whoever she beats fastest is out, then the other two play a speed game for survival. In the final, a set of three puzzles against the clock eliminates one player, games against David Howell eliminate a second, and the last two go head-to-head in the final match.
And it's a mess.
The big issue is that they're cramming too much in, and thanks to the quick-cut editing style, it's almost impossible to follow. The first round of the first episode set the tone: three simultaneous 10-minute-a-side matches, crammed into eleven minutes which also include contestant introductions, was simply never going to work on television, especially when the VT editor is so keen to show us cutaways to anything but the actual position on the board. Even when we do get to see the board, the lighting is abysmal - the boards are lit from one side, resulting in long shadows that just add to the confusion. It's a relief when we cut away entirely and go to David Howell in the next room, since he's got a big graphical display that you can actually make sense of. Previous chess shows put diagrams on screen throughout, so now we're in the widescreen age with all that lovely high-definition space available there's really no excuse for failing to do so.
The one aspect of the show that does seem to be universally admired is David Howell's efforts to explain what's going on and point out traps and strategies. His co-commentator, former The Traitors constestant Anthony Mathurin, is a chess coach but his main function on this show is to be the guy you recognise from another programme whose presence may intrigue you enough to watch this one. Otherwise, he's a bit of a third wheel, offering barely any more insight than Sue Perkins does.
The show seemed to suffer from not really knowing what it was supposed to be; you got the impression that at one stage it may have been planned as a simple human-interest documentary about people who took up, or redicovered, chess during the pandemic, then someone had the bright idea of showing off their subjects' skills by making it into a competition and hustled for an 8x30 minute series - only to find that this was nowhere near enough to do a 12-player chess tournament justice. It was certainly wildly oversold: initial reports suggested a revival of The Master Game, which it definitely isn't, and even the final press release promised a "high-stakes competition", which suggests somebody really needs to recalibrate their notion of what constitutes "high stakes". The format wasn't very well thought-out either: arguably the programme's biggest honour was getting to play against Sivanandan - and that privilege went to the losers of the previous round. Play too well and sorry, you don't get to do that! Other miscellaneous annoyances: the imposition of cloying nicknames for the players, the insistence that they were crowning "Britain's Chess Master" (at least go for "Chess Masters Champion" - that's a description you can actually live up to), the bizarre "The Endgame" tag, the excessive and overbearing background music, and the way they show the checkmate move two or three times, making it look like a player is illegally making multiple moves very quickly.
Taking over a Monday evening slot vacated by Only Connect, the show rated abysmally, never breaking a million in overnights, so we wouldn't expect it back. (So at least "The Endgame" would be somewhat accurate!) If it does return, more actual chess please.
Champion
Thalia Holmes
