Despite being one of the world’s oldest games, chess is far from being forgotten. From 2020’s The Queen’s Gambit spiking sales of chess boards and books, to the chess.com app being the most downloaded in February 2023, new players across the globe continue to find love for the 1500-year-old game.

Now Chess Masters will bring together 12 amateur players from across the UK to compete in heats and knock-out rounds.

One of the judges knows a thing or two about strategy, both from his day job as a chess coach, but also from his stint on The Traitors. Anthony Mathurin featured on series two, and was banished in episode six, perhaps due to his all-guns-blazing approach. He’ll be joined by chess champion David Howell, who earned the Grandmaster title when he was only 16.

Perkins says: “I’m so excited to be hosting Chess Masters, where twelve talented amateurs from across Britain are pitted against one another in the world’s oldest game.

“It’s all about psychology, strategy, smart thinking, and nerves of steel. Chess that is, not my job (which usually involves the opposite). I’m there to help us understand what’s going on in the players’ heads and make sense of what’s happening on the board. We’ve been waiting over 30 years to see chess back on our TV screens. Chess Masters will make that wait worthwhile.”

Chess Masters doesn’t have a release date set, but will air on BBC Two and iPlayer.