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Chess Is Ignored On T.V. ButFrank Brady Tries ToNEW YORK (AP) — Broadcasting’s coverage of sporting events has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. But chess is ignored because it neither leaps nor bounds. It just sits there and moves now and then.But a guy named Frank Brady is trying to fill this gap for a while. On national radio, no less. He’s been reporting and analyzing the moves in four major chess matches for two weeks now.The winner in the finals plays Bobby Fischer for the world title next year. The most prominent match this week, occurring in Puerto Rico, is between Russia’s Boris Spassky and Robert Byrne of the United StatesBut chess fans needn’t frantically dial around for Brady’s play-by-play report. There isn’t any, and thank heavens.Brady, who estimates the board bouts average five hours a game, only comes on for 5 to 10 minutes, Tuesdays and Fridays, on the National Public Radiosystem linking 167 stations in most ofthe United StatesSo what he’ll do is summarize each match, “try to give the essence of what went on’’ and perhaps interview one or two chess experts on what went wrong or may happen in a given game.An international arbiter of the World Chess Federation and author of books on Fischer and chess strategy, Brady said he’d given the most coverage this week to the big Spassky-Byrne match.It’s not his first fling at chess broadcasting. Two summers ago, he went to Iceland to report on the famous Spassky-Fischer duels by phone for three California radio stations, plus a public TV show that made a brief star out of New York chess champ Shelby Lyman.However, he isn’t at the Spassky-Byme match. So how does he cover it?“What I’ve been doing for the most part is going to Manhattan,’’ said Brady, 39, a resident of Moorestown, N.J. “At the Marshall Chess Club, in New York, they get the moves, move byThe Gapmove, by open telephone line from San Juan.“And I’ve been going there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and sitting there, analyzing the game as they go along, interviewing people, getting comments and trying to put it all together for a five-minute show.’’Does he think his descriptions of the games would be intelligible to listeners with only a hazy idea of chess?“Oh, yes,’’ he said. “They may not specifically know what I’m talking about, for example, when I starttalking about ‘Sicilian defenses’or ‘Buy Lopez.’”This is true. However, he emphasized, “I try to make it as simple as possible because I’m not, trying to appeal to the diehard chess player, but to persons who just know the basicmoves.NPR says Brady’s chess reports, to continue until the playoff matches end, appear at the end of NPR’s regular “All Things Considered” program, which most stations carry from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
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Arkansas City Traveler
Arkansas City, Kansas, US
Fri, Jan 25, 1974
Page 11
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Los A.
CA, USA 23 Dec 2022
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