V šachu

Last month when I was playing chess in Prague I had a short draw on the final day, and hoped to do pretty much a full day's sightseeing. Alas, it started ratting down like nobody's business and after lunch I had no option but to retreat to my hotel room, where I nodded off while waiting for the rain to stop. When I woke up, out of habit I picked up the remote control and...

...Good God, is that chess on the telly?

It surely was.

I was so impressed I took a load of really poor-quality photographs.

Checking the TV listings I turned out to be about halfway through a show called V šachu

which is literally In Chess, though we could think of any number of better, less literal translations.

You'll have recognised the chap pictured here (and probably could even if I'd known how to turn the subtitles off)

and at least one of the two people here.

Their news service includes the latest results

and some game analysis too.

But why bother with my shonky old photographs when you can watch the show yourself? V šachu can be seen on the internet: it seems to be a four-weekly show. The edition I saw - dated 4 August, though I saw it a week later - is here while another one came out at the start of this month. I assume another is due at the end of this week.

I don't know anything about the production of the show, who's responsible and how successful the show might be, or indeed anything about the channel it was on, though it can't have been completely obscure, since the World Athletics Championship was on the same side later in the evening.

So, chess on TV. It can, at any rate, be done.