I am pitching several ideas for a Chess Reality Show to the studios next week. It has to be fun, exciting, entertaining and catchy to ALL types of audience and not just chess players.
Suggestions and ideas are most welcome 🙂 Time to put on your thinking cap, helmet, beret, toupee (don’t forget, the Kojak look is in) or whatever you wear 🙂 Thank you!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
It needs to be exciting. Lock 7 chess players in an elevator with the cable on fire about to break and you need to checkmate your opponent and get out alive.
I don’t know but it needs to have blitz chess and Nakamura!
Make a new rules where the players were given a total of 3 hours clock time to play and he or she will use the time throughout the reality show. He/She can use all 3 hours in one game but then he/she will not have any more time to use for the next match and thus will be eliminated. Thus, the players must manage their time carefully to stay in the show.
The three wonderful ideas above can be combined. 3 hours is too long for the cable to burn though. 1 hour is the usual length for the segment. They just need to keep finding new elevators to use every week.
Michael Langer
Austin, Texas
Combine chess with a beauty contest, where chessplayers compete in bathing suits.
the winner of a non chess activity gets to pick the opponent in a chess game and the loser goes home. additionally, the game can be handicapped, maybe 5 min to 3 min. or material odds to account for rating differences.
the contest can be physical or social. social: each player goes dancing with a super model, she picks the winner, who picks his opponent for chess, the winner gets another date.
I’m assuming that the reality show might follow some chess players (kids?) through a series of tournaments showing pressure (and fun) from themselves, from family, etc. I’m not sure that the general public would understand the chess though. Would Susan give a short lesson to viewers during each episode?
I might rather see a reality show about Susan herself…jetsetting around trying to promote chess, juggling family responsibilities, dealing with chess politics and students and fans, etc. Perhaps kind of a cross between the Osbornes and tennis’ Williams sisters reality shows.
Or along those same lines, what about following 3 people each episode…a rather young kid, an older high school teen, and a much older chess veteran…each show would appeal to a broad audience. Young viewers would wonder what’s going to happen to the young kid, teens and young adults would be particularly interested in the teen, and older adults would be interested in the older chess veteran.
Hmmm…I’m not sure about any of those ideas…I’d have to think about this some more. The biggest challenge in pitching the studios will be addressing their inevitable question “Do you have to understand chess to enjoy the show?”
If you’re making any appearances in LA, Susan, please let us know. Good luck with your pitches! It would be fun to see your chess reality show!
The players get a fixed amount of time to start (let’s say 10 minutes), and the winner keeps playing with the remaining time against new opponents (who start out with the full 10 minutes). For every game a player wins, his prizemoney doubles (up to a point). Maybe gets a minimum of a minute on the clock for each game, with the option of buying up to another minute with a portion of the prizemoney won so far. Running commentary by GM’s and guest celebrities. A player with a long winning streak could get a Ken Jennings (Jeopardy) type status.
There are many reasons why reality shows are popular these days, and one of the most compelling is the desire to watch people fight. It’s like being back in school, and someone shouts, “Fight!” and everyone swirls around the two combatants, thrilled by the spectacle.
Reality shows are about spectacle. One of the key points of your pitch could well be the stereotype that many good chess players are ever so slightly insane in the old membrane, and holing them up together in a house is likely to generate some sparks.
I would think that covering a large chess tournament (U.S. Open or a national scholastic event) from both the player’s and organizer’s perspective could be interesting (chess parents, problems with pairings, rule violations, tantrums, etc.). Themes such as females in a male chess world, young prodigy trying to move to the next level, rivals competing for first prize, disagreements about preparation for individual games, romances (maybe even fistfights) could be used from week to week.
Or maybe a group of six to eight fairly well known celebrities who don’t know how to play chess can compete for some sort of prize in a week-to-week round robin tournament. Each player would be tutored in chess by a prominent chess coach each week for the duration of the tournament. Clips of the “behind the scenes” weekly lessons of each player, could be shown as a lead-in to the actual tournament games, with voice over commentary (simple) as the games are played. Maybe G/30 or some fairly quick time control could be used, though I wouldn’t suggest televising the whole game. Chess coaches would benefit from the publicity, people who don’t know anything about chess might be excited about learning the game like the celebrities do, and the process of learning and playing would be revealed to the public so chess would seem less intimidating. Viewers could pick up on scoring (1 point for a win 1/2 for a draw, 0 for a loss) some basic principles, names of openings, the pieces, etc.
” There are many reasons why reality shows are popular these days”
Actually reality TV is generally hated by most people. Look at their extremely low ratings as well as lack of a 2nd season of most shows.
During tournament scenes, you might want to include “Chess Cheerleaders” (lol, just kidding)
How about a show that highlights the personalities you end up seeing at teh typical weekend tournament. Chess draws an eclectic blend of people from eccentrics to quiet folks. Find 3 or 4 disitnct personalities at the amature level and follow them for a few events.
This way the show could be partially about the off the board lives of these everyday folks. A kid maintaining the demands of school. The obsessed over achiever lawyer ( engineer, or who ever) living and breathing every waking hour about the coming event… and then failing at the event.
Just a thought… Quite frankly ..I think the people behind the matches is better human interest story for the general public.
I like the idea about having poor chess players play each other to SURVIVE after getting expert advice.
Teaching adults who have never played chess sounds like entertainment
I think the show should incorporate elements of “Dancing with the Stars” (celebrities, stronger players helping beginners) and “Beauty and the Geek” (physically attractive characters, let’s say both male and female for the sake of fairness).
pLEASE pLEASE pLEASE…..i WANNA GO !!!!i’D BE A FUNNY CHESS GEEK!! i’M PERFECT…pLEASE pLEASE PLEASE….HAHA
mIKE mAGNAN
aND YEAH!!! i’LL DRAW CARTOONS TOO!!
It seems that the quality of chess player is never a consideration when TV is discussed. Well, if all you need is to get attention, invite Arianne Caiolli to more tournaments (another barely dressed chess babe will also do) and pay somebody to punch a guy next to her. It ain’t dignified, but it gets into the newspapers, and will get on TV if ever happens again. Dishonest? But so is pandering to TV-addicted people in hope of attracting them to the game.
This is shameful and this is how Kirsan Ilumzhinov has started. The idea of chess as fast and furious, exciting entertainment – knock out tournaments, shortened time controls, etc. How is it possible that a serious chess player could want any of this? Instead of fighting for preserving the little dignity left in chess, do we need to cheapen it to make it TV-friendly? Look at Russia, Armenia, Ukraine – plenty of chess players and general awareness of the game, but no reality shows, just a lot of chess education accessible to children as they grow up. Susan Polgar of all people should not work to make chess a free entertainment. Where’s the dignity and grace? What’s next? Chess Idol? Vote Kramnik off, because Topalov is more macho? Carlsen as the audience favorite because he’s “cute”?
” Anonymous said…
This is shameful and this is how Kirsan Ilumzhinov has started. The idea of chess as fast and furious, exciting entertainment – knock out tournaments, shortened time controls, etc. How is it possible that a serious chess player could want any of this? Instead of fighting for preserving the little dignity left in chess, do we need to cheapen it to make it TV-friendly? Look at Russia, Armenia, Ukraine – plenty of chess players and general awareness of the game, but no reality shows, just a lot of chess education accessible to children as they grow up. Susan Polgar of all people should not work to make chess a free entertainment. Where’s the dignity and grace? What’s next? Chess Idol? Vote Kramnik off, because Topalov is more macho? Carlsen as the audience favorite because he’s “cute”? “
I couldnt agree with you more. This looks like it will be a person into self promotion instead of chess promotion. Remember Maurice Ashley’s scar on chess history with the HB? He held a tournament that he hoped for record turnout during the week while school was in. This was a shame that he not only did this only for self promotion but also guaranteed that companies will never sponsor chess in America because it has failed once before now. Asking for ideas at the time to pitch ideas will only result in “Welcome to the GM xyz show” and make it so someone who has genuine ideas and a passion to promote the royal game will never get their chance because the studios will say “no thanks, GM xyz already pitched us some stupid ideas, so we dont want to hear yours”.
Its obvious most visitors here agree also by their comical suggestions.
Susan, I hate to nitpick, and am sure you mean well, but canvassing for ideas in this manner raises ethical issues. I assume that you expect to be compensated if your pitch to the TV people is accepted.
Supposing for the sake of argument 😉 that I have a brilliant idea for a chess reality show, why would I, by core-dumping to this forum, give it to you gratis so that you can get paid?
There is no ethical issue. If people do not want to offer their ideas, they do not have to. This is done for the benefit of chess. If others can pitch these ideas to the studios, they are welcome to.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
http://www.SusanPolgar.com
Should I take “for the benefit of chess” to mean that your proposal to the networks includes no compensation for yourself?
Who are all these obnoxious idiots? Susan is one of the most generous chess professionals in the world. She has donated thousands and thousands of dollars every year to chess.
Hi Susan,
Here are some ideas from our family. We think that it would be great to have a show that is geared towards children so more kids would get involved in playing chess. The show should combine activities to include not only chess, this way the kids who are not great in chess can participate or watch, and hopefully start playing chess more. For example, a 30-60 min show “KidzBlitz” with 2 teams of kids that play chess blitz for 10 minutes, then do relay races and then compete in trivia or “jeopardy”-like game. Each team earns points, the winner team gets a prize (trophy, scholarship, etc.) This way the show could involve chess and be “cool” at the same time. Also, the team does not have to be very highly ranked in chess to have a chance to win.
I am not sure about other kids, but my daughter got really excited about this idea. Hopefully, it will prove useful.
Diana
Great idea Diana
If someone had to rank the different age groups it seems to me that the younger the viewers, the higher the probability that the TV show would be successful
So maybe this question should be discussed amongst the youngsters
There is going to be a serious issue with the promotion of chess on television if it is truely designed to promote the continuance of chess. Getting caught up with the people as a reality show will not promote chess but rather people getting together to display some geeky common interest.
What needs to happen is something of a game show that will allow people to interact with their television. Something similar to “Wheel of Fortune” or “Jumble” or something that will allow the audience to get into the contest. So you display something on the screen and have X seconds to win X material. You might have X minutes with your team to find the best continuance.
People at home can then get into the contest as they have the same X seconds to figure out the answers. This will allow you to have many personalities on the show, win many various prizes, all while teaching chess to all the television watchers.
Now, you have two really classy announcers that can talk in both chess terms and to the general public. Each show you also have a celebrity that loves chess. Like Will Smith might be a good choice because I understand that he is really into it.
Now you have a variety of people in the show, prizes, the audience is actually engaged into the show.
For the final round if you wanted to get freaky you could allow each side in a game to select an army theme and the other side has X minutes to familiarize themselves, and then it’s a blitz. This will confuse not only the contestants but also the audience.
I’d be very pleased to have the same time to solve puzzles on the TV along with other people so I can train, learn, and be excited about the game with unknowingly becoming better.
Without having the audience involved you just have another reality show with people doing something that noone cares about, but get more involved in the people rather than the contest.
I would love a kids’ chess show, as somebody suggested, but no reality show. The point of the show would not be promoting chess among passive TV watchers, but teaching kids and/or developing their interest in chess. I consider reality shows about as attractive as the plague, and I would pity any player who was destitute enough to participate in one. Since there is no way you can run a reality show with classic time controls, the whole idea seems beside the point.
How about some young people in Europe, playing to get norms. The life of chess vagabonds, maybe with a few old burnout guys still going for the glory.
Hi Susan: You could get a group of guys from the U.T. of Dallas, and do it low budget. Get room mates, clash of personalities, say the natural who likes to party, teamed with an introvert who only lives for chess. A jewish guy from New York teamed with a cowboy from Texas, or an Arab-American from Chicago. A quiet girl who breaks out of her shell and gives as good as she gets!