| 20140911 | 20150104 (R4) | A close encounter with the street chess players of Washington Square Park, New York.|A close encounter with the street chess players of Greenwich Village in New York, who play for money on the stone tables in Washington Square park.|For these players, chess is like life - a game of survival, of war, of tricks and traps - with many paying their bills and living costs from the money they win at the tables.|These are highly skilled chess players who take on the general public for money. Some are homeless - and a world away from the official tournament scene and stuffy formalism usually associated with the game. Chess is returned to its roots as a street-level pastime - fast, aggressive, winner takes all.|Watching some of them play, it's somewhere between street magic, confidence trick and the most serious tournament - snappy patter disguises the sharpest moves in quick time. These players don't lose often. The nearby Village chess shop is a hub where players can take a break on long winter afternoons, or after the parks are cleared at night. It's been a fixture of the Village for many years.|This programme - filled with the sounds of Washington Square and its nearby chess rooms - features a mix of characters who've been playing there for many years, and for whom chess is a spiritual anchor as well as an economic lifeline.|Producer: Simon Hollis|A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4. |
| 20140911 | | A close encounter with the street chess players of Greenwich Village in New York, who play for money on the stone tables in Washington Square park.||For these players, chess is like life - a game of survival, of war, of tricks and traps - with many paying their bills and living costs from the money they win at the tables.||These are highly skilled chess players who take on the general public for money. Some are homeless - and a world away from the official tournament scene and stuffy formalism usually associated with the game. Chess is returned to its roots as a street-level pastime - fast, aggressive, winner takes all.||Watching some of them play, it's somewhere between street magic, confidence trick and the most serious tournament - snappy patter disguises the sharpest moves in quick time. These players don't lose often. The nearby Village chess shop is a hub where players can take a break on long winter afternoons, or after the parks are cleared at night. It's been a fixture of the Village for many years.||This programme - filled with the sounds of Washington Square and its nearby chess rooms - features a mix of characters who've been playing there for many years, and for whom chess is a spiritual anchor as well as an economic lifeline.||Producer: Simon Hollis|A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4. |
