Chess Masters: The End Game | Preview (BBC Two)

Across eight episodes, passionate and highly-skilled players from all backgrounds will battle it out across a series of rapid chess games before one will be crowned the title of Chess Master.

With six million regular players in the UK, 605 million adults playing regularly across the world, and celebrity fans including Anthony Joshua, Madonna, Will Smith and Lily Cole, chess is becoming a global phenomenon.

Sue Perkins hosts this high-stakes chess contest, following 12 rising stars of the UK’s booming chess community as they battle it out via a gauntlet of brain-bending puzzles and nail-biting eliminators to be crowned champion.

In the first of two heats, six talented players from across the UK arrive at Cardiff’s former coal exchange. They face a brain-boggling puzzle and a high-stakes speed chess battle.

In addition, keep an eye on proceedings and providing expert commentary will be three-time British chess champion and grandmaster David Howell; and expert chess coach and former Traitors contestant Anthony Mathurin.

Host Sue Perkins said: “I’m so excited to be hosting Chess Masters, where twelve talented amateurs from across Britain are pitted against one another in the world’s oldest game.

“It’s all about psychology, strategy, smart thinking, and nerves of steel. Chess that is, not my job (which usually involves the opposite). I’m there to help us understand what’s going on in the players’ heads and make sense of what’s happening on the board. We’ve been waiting over 30 years to see chess back on our TV screens. Chess Masters will make that wait worth while.”

Chess Masters: The Endgame begins Monday 10th March at 8pm on BBC Two.