CHESS MAKES ITS MOVE FOR MASS AUDIENCE ON BRITAIN’S CHANNEL 4

Soviet chess world champion Garry Kasparov began a two-day televised challenge match Wednesday with British grand master Nigel Short, billed as an attempt to project the game for a mass television audience.

The six-game match was being held at a leading London discotheque. The two players emerged onto a floodlit stage to the sound of rock music as multicolored strobe lights and laser beams flashed around the auditorium.

Britain’s Channel Four commercial station is screening the games in six programs starting later this month. The invited audience, many of whom were forced to stand in the packed auditorium, was asked to keep the results a secret until they’d been broadcast.

In recent years, a number of so-called alternative sports, including snooker and darts, have gained a wide audience on British television.

The announcer of this match, Tony Bastable, made it clear the current match was a bid for chess to do the same.

“This is a unique and fascinating occasion, the first competitive event designed for television. If it works, one day we could have chess going on TV endlessly, just like snooker does now,” he said. Then he asked the audience to practice applauding the players before they emerged on stage.

In an attempt to project their personalities, Bastable conducted brief interviews with the two players before and after the games, asking them about their off-the-board activities.

Short, 21 and ranked sixth in the world, spoke about his participation in a rock band some years ago. Kasparov, 23, who retained his world title last year in a classic encounter with former champion Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union, said he had no time for other interests.

Each player has a maximum of 25 minutes to complete the game, compared to the 2 1/2 for 40 moves usually allowed in tournaments. In another parallel with snooker, they wore gleaming tuxedos and bow ties.