What am I doing?

[Ben Purton]

I am a passionate supporter of Wycombe Wanderers who could do with more support. We have even had high profile articulate managers, but that doesn't mean I would have lobbied for Martin O'Neill to be on Question Time.

Ive seen you play alot V Reading back in the day. Home and away.

You have one of the best 5 football chants ever in

"Hes fast, Hes Black, He sounds like the Big Mac , Jermaine McSporreeeeen"

[Ben Purton]

Should be had now I guess

[benedgell]

Wasn't expecting quite such a backlash to this suggestion...

Frankly, I don't think a lot of the people who've replied are being realistic. I think you've looked at my suggestion and thought up every possible reason why we shouldn't try for this, or it wouldn't work.

CJ is an incredibly intelligent person, who is used to working in media. I'm confident he wouldn't say anything embaressing or controversial. Would his opinions on politics be entirely worthwhile? No. But previous panelists have included Richard Madeley (of Richard and Judy fame). Is he any more relevant to politics then CJ? No.

I can tell this is a debate that every time I try to mention the positive of this, I'll get half a dozen messages reminding me of possible negatives, so I'll leave this here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/q ... 827200.stm

is the link if you want to suggest CJ. Do it if you feel having the President of English Chess featuring on a programme with an audience of millions that may not see him on Eggheads may be a positive for English chess. If you feel that having CJ on Question Time will bring more negatives then positives, then don't click on the link.

[J T Melsom]

Ben P

Mcsporran was excellent but his career was blighted by injuries. Don't remember that chant thought. I preferred Reading at Elm Park before they got ideas above their station. Are there any Huntley and Palmers biscuit makers still out there?

Ben E

You can have the last word, but I do feel that as you go forward as Publicity Officer you should be less quick to dismiss feedback as negativity, or realism as the new negativity. Frankly that sort of reaction is a bit oversensitive. Many on this site care passionately about chess and put a lot of time into trying to make it thrive locally. We welcome your efforts to publicise chess, but just think CJ on Question Time is a misjudged idea. Wishing you every success in yout efforts.

[andrew martin]

I have to agree with the last post. The idea of CJ appearing on Question Time is silly, unless a specific question came up about chess being recognised as a sport. Even then CJ is not a politician.

For ideal TV coverage, he would be much better off appearing on a childrens show like Blue Peter or similar and push the potential of chess as an educational tool . An even more ideal scenario would see the Eggheads challenged by a team of hand-picked chessplayers on the quiz show.

Andrew

[Michele Clack]

I think CJ on question time is a good idea. They usually try and have questions relevant to the panellists so there would be a good chance of getting a mention for chess, perhaps in connection with education.

The chess players against eggheads has been done before, I think. I seem to remember Claire Summerscale and some other members of Pandora's Box competing and doing quite well but not beating the eggheads.

Keep up the good work Ben. I think you are doing a great job. What we are talking about is advertising and you need to think outside the box. You never know what is going to work. Just think about the specsavers adverts. Everyone I know laughs out loud at the one where the elderly couple get on the rollercoaster by mistake. It must be the advert of the century. Yet there is another one in that series that is absolutley awful. It's so bad I can't remember what it is about now. If you don't keep trying things you'll never hit on Chess's rollercoaster moment.

Saying that though I don't think there is ever going to be one big answer to recruit new players. You just need to keep chipping away at as many things as possible. We've found that at club level. However, there has been an increasing trend towards people finding us on the internet. So I think the ECF needs to look into that. Possible actions by the ECF could include getting adverts onto internet chess servers even if there is a cost. Then the ECF could follow the Bridge people by providing a website service for clubs. Any adverts could link directly into a list of club and congress websites.

[benedgell]

Okay, let's leave the subject of Question Time aside. Which programmes would you like to see, and think it's realistic to try for, as regards getting CJ on tv as ECF President?

I remember there have been teams of chess players on Eggheads before. There was a Pride and Prejudice team lead by Claire Summerscale, which consisted entirely of female chess players. I think there may have been another chess team on there, although I can't remember that for fact.

As far as Blue Peter is concerned, there would have to be an angle that would be entertaining to children. When I suggested to the Blue Peter presenter I worked with at the Design Festival a rather visually- pleasing mate that could've happened, he replied "Don't worry, the kids wouldn't really understand it". I know what he means, but it shows the difficulties in getting chess onto a kid's show.

Finally, as for Michelle's suggestion for advertising on chess servers- it's a decent idea, and one that certainly would be worth looking into, were it not for the rather precarious state of ECF finances at the moment. I don't know if ICC does advertising on it's server, and I know Playchess.com, doesn't. As far as sites like MSN and Yahoo, the costs would be pretty huge, I imagine. Possibly something like one of the smaller specialist chess sites would be worth aiming at, but it would still be beyond the ECF's financial means at the moment.

[John Upham]

I remember there have been teams of chess players on Eggheads before. There was a Pride and Prejudice team lead by Claire Summerscale, which consisted entirely of female chess players. I think there may have been another chess team on there, although I can't remember that for fact.

There was a team from Camberley Chess Club.

[Trefor Owens]

Maybe a better idea would be a modern version of the old TV classic Master Chess - but instead of the GMs of the past series this time chess playing celebrities - for example
CJ de Mooi
Lennox Lewis
Steve Davis
Carol Vorderman
Stephen Fry
Clive Anderson
Nigella Lawson
Ossie Ardiles

This is of course a very random list and I am sure that there may well be better people available, I am not even sure if they all play but it is your starter for 10

[Jonathan Bryant]

This is I think ...

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/stunn ... more-17979


with CJ and celebrities as the participants and Short/Adams/Howell/whoever as the simul giver.

[Neill Cooper]

Okay, let's leave the subject of Question Time aside. Which programmes would you like to see, and think it's realistic to try for, as regards getting CJ on tv as ECF President?

Main News reports of the London Chess Classic?

[Paul McKeown]

Nigella Lawson

ummm Nigella Lawson ummmm nice crumpets ummmm

What were you saying again?

[Paul McKeown]

with CJ and celebrities as the participants and Short/Adams/Howell/whoever as the simul giver.

ummm Nigella oh Nigel Short

[Peter Rhodes]

Great ideas. Perhaps we could get Channel 4 to commission a program I have an idea for ?

"Pub Chess with Chas & Dave".

The guests for the 1st show could be

Dave Lee Travis.
The Krankees.
Imelda Marcos.

[benedgell]

I'd be surprised if the London Chess Classic didn't get some news coverage, but as they have a specialist pr firm working for them, I'll leave them to carry on doing the great job they've done so far.

I suggested a Master Game style show to the BBC a few months back, and didn't get a response. I imagine there would be more interest with celebrities involved, but inevitably all celebrities would demand a fee which would be far beyond the ECF's financial means.