Well, provided they use the material they filmed… :eek:
So I’m preparing for the last day of School term (just meetings + supervision - pretty dull) when the phone rings. My mate tells me that Derren Brown wants chess players for an illusion on his next TV show.
And so the next day, while my jolly nice colleagues cover for me, I am off to London for filming! 
Obviously I don’t want to spoil the surprise. But here’s what I can tell you:
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It’s intended to go out this Summer on Channel 4 (UK), probably in June.
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Derren Brown is not only a talented illusionist but also a top bloke! (After 4 solid hours of filming, he still made time to chat with us and sign autographs.
) -
Basically Derren (not known as a chess player) takes on 9 players, including 4 grandmasters, simultaneously. (With an ELO of 2330, I was only the 7th strongest!) There are only 3 ways to do this:
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bribery (nope, we were all playing flat out against him)
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be the next Garry Kasparov (but from the way he physically moves the pieces, Derren is just a beginner)
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use a little-known chess trick (I think he’s going to reveal all on the programme)
- But that wasn’t all!
Firstly the chess ‘trick’ involves making about 500 completely accurate chess moves from memory, with no chance of recovery if he makes a single mistake. (The whole thing was filmed in one take.)
Derren also did two other impossible things as part of the stunt. (One of them involved me holding an envelope for him, and I assure you I was not in any sort of conspiracy. In fact I was thinking “Wait till my Mum sees me on telly!”)
