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You’re not missing anything. It’s not really for chess fans, though David Howell struggles manfully. Typically BBC “balanced” demographic. Nicknames clearly never used and chosen at the last minute by a production assistant. I only find it watchable in a macabre “who on earth are they appealing to?” way.

Oh dear, you are quite right Quisling. I gave up on the first episode.

Not surprising. The chess.com story that informed me about the series (in fairness, more than one episode had aired) provided some description which didn't appeal to me from a chess standpoint. And being an old f**t and not understanding "streaming", profiles of young streamers don't fascinate.

I watched about half of the first episode and decided it was aimed at people who had never actually played chess! Poor replacement for Only Connect....

Not a chess solution but the clue stands out:

Indy 12,015 (Wiglaf) 26: Nigel Short, a foreign agent to be kept enslaved (2,7)

Exciting "freestyle" (chess960) action at the Grenke Open.

Round 5: V. Mikhalevski played a shocking Q sacrifice 19...Qxc3?! vs Carlsen, but it had a subtle flaw and he will likely lose. P. Pultinevicius played the spectacular 20. Rxg7+!! vs. the formidable J. Sindarov and should win.

Brendan, the controversial Pogchamps ("streamer" Internet personalities playing blitz chess on chess.com) has returned.

Controversial because the level of chess is not high and some of the streamers are "colo(u)rful" personalities.

This year 2 prominent athletes are participating: Premier League footballer Ebere Eze and World Champion /Olympic medalist gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik.

I remember the gymnast from the Olympics. People were impressed by how calm and stoic he remained while patiently awaiting his turn to compete on the pommel horse to help his team win the bronze medal - plus a lot of people said he reminded them of Clarke Kent because of the way he would remove his glasses before competing!

Doubt he'll do any of that here, but I'll check it out all the same:-)

I saw a video (not live) of Mr. Nedoroscik's individual bronze-winning routine. I became a fan because he looks like somewhat of a .... geek!
I'll look for videos of his Pogchamps games. Watching the Pogchamps live seems a suboptimal allocation of time. 😁

The two athletes have advanced to the semifinals, where they will square off tomorrow.