Chess of the Grandmasters (original title: Schach der Großmeister) is a former German TV programme. The programme was devised, supervised and presented by Claus Spahn.

History

Between 1983 and 2005, the programme was broadcast once a year by Germany's

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (), is a German public broadcasting, public-broadcasting institution based in the States of Germany, Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a const ...

(WDR) broadcasting corporation. The concept of the programme was that two Grandmasters played a game of

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

against each other that was commentated and analysed by two Grandmasters, Helmut Pfleger and

Vlastimil Hort Vlastimil Hort (12 January 1944 – 12 May 2025) was a Czech and German chess grandmaster. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's strongest players and reached the World Chess Championship 1978, 1977–78 Candidates Tournament for ...

, and later also analysed by the chess program

Fritz Fritz is a common German language, German male name. The name originated as a German diminutive of Friedrich (given name), Friedrich or Frederick (given name), Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Fred ...

. The winner received the ''WDR TV Chess Award'' and had the opportunity to defend the title against a new challenger in the following year. The invited players included

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...

Peter Leko Peter Leko (; born September 8, 1979) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and commentator. He became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994. He narrowly missed winning the Classical World Chess Championship 2004: the match was drawn 7–7 and s ...

Jan Timman Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...

and lot more. The first game was played in 1983 by Chess Worldchampion

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...

and the strongest German player at that time,

Robert Hübner Robert Hübner (6 November 1948 – 5 January 2025) was a German chess grandmaster, chess writer, and papyrologist. He was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s. Chess career At eighteen, Hübner was joint winner of t ...

. In the final broadcast in 2005, the two commentators Pfleger and Hort themselves played against each other. In 1995, Kasparov won a two-game match (1½-½) against the Chess Genius 3 computer program. This contest attracted great attention in the media, because Kasparov had shortly before lost against this program in a

Fast chess Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. A ...

tournament in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Examples of games

The most remarkable games in the series included the victory of

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the Strong (chess), strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years ...

, aged just 14 at the time, against the experienced German Grandmaster Rainer Knaak in 1990, as well as the defeat of Hübner against Kasparov in just 15 moves in 1992. Judit Polgár – Rainer Knaak, Chess of the Grandmasters 1990 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 (the Winawer Variation of the

French Defence The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e6 This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5. Black usually plays ...c5 soon after, attacking White's and gaining on the . The French has a reputation for solidity ...

, ECO code C18) 7.Qg4 Qc7 8.Bd3 cxd4 9.Ne2 Qxe5 10.Bf4 Qf6 11.Bg5 Qe5 12.cxd4 h5 13.Qh4 Qc7 14.Bf4 Qa5+ 15.Bd2 Qd8 16.g4 e5 17.dxe5 Bxg4 18.Rg1 Qd7 19.f3 Be6 20.Nd4 Nbc6 21.Nxc6 Nxc6 22.Rxg7 Qc7 23.f4 Nxe5 24.fxe5 Qxe5+ 25.Kf2 Qxg7 26.Rg1 Qb2 27.Bb4 f6 28.Re1 O-O-O 29.Rxe6 Kb8 30.Qxf6 Qa2 31.Qd4 Rc8 32.Bd2 Ka8 33.Be3 Rxc2+ 34.Bxc2 Qxc2+ 35.Ke1 Qb1+ 36.Kd2 Qa2+ 37.Kd1 Qb1+ 38.Ke2 Qc2+ 39.Bd2 Rf8 40.Qxd5 1-0

Games and results

The tables below list games than can be played (Java Script). TV Chess Award:Archiv des Fernsehschachpreises
results, games and pairings (in German) Other broadcasts:

References / Games

{{Reflist
Die 25 Partien des Fernsehschachpreises und die 6 Partien der weiteren Sendungen des WDR
by

Gerhard Hund Gerhard Friedrich Hund (4 February 1932 – 21 June 2024) was a German chess player, mathematician and computer scientist. Biography Gerhard Hund was the oldest son of physicist Friedrich Hund (1896–1997) and mathematician Ingeborg Seynsch ...

(in German)

External links

Schach der Großmeister '97 : Wladimir Kramnik - Judit Polgar, 31. August 1997 in Köln
(in German)

(in German) * ttp://www.teleschach.com/berichte/wdr-99.htm WDR: Schach der Großmeister '99 - Artur Jussupow - Jörg Hickl, 15. August 1999(in German)
Interview mit Claus Spahn, 12. Juli 2001
anläßlich der Verleihung des Deutschen Schachpreises 2001 (in German)

(in German)
Zur letzten Sendung ''Schach der Großmeister'' am 24. August 2005
(in German) Television shows about chess Chess in Germany 1983 in chess 2005 in chess 1983 German television series debuts 2005 German television series endings 1990s German television series German-language television shows Das Erste original programming