BBC Two’s show Chess Masters: The Endgame reached its final last week amid a continuing debate between experts, who found it patronising, and social players, novices and children who enjoyed its light touch and focus on personalities.
Viewer numbers, as supplied by Broadcast, peaked in the first week at 890,000, gradually dipping to a low of 535,000 on Easter Monday before rebounding to 655,000 for the final week.
However, Charlie Bunce, director of programmes for the production company Curve Media, told chess.com that the first episode had attracted just under 1.2m viewers, describing that as “a great success”, and that in the rest of the series the programme had “held its share”.
3970 Valentin Dragnev (1906) v GM Matthias Blübaum (2606), Freestyle Friday 2025. White to move and win, overcoming…
