Category Archives: Chess promo (Cuatro)

The making of the Cuatro chess promo

Remember the amazing chess-themed promo shown on the Spanish station Cuatro? Here’s a video that shows how it was made.

It turns out they had originally started with the Borges poem but then, because of copyright issues, they used the Omar Khayyam poem instead.

The original Spanish promo from Cuatro has been pulled from YouTube, but there are two English versions that are available (at least for now).

Via lostpedia-blog.de

The Cuatro chessboard promo — English versions

The original Cuatro promo has been pulled from YouTube.

I found two other versions that are still available (at least at the moment). The first is a version with English text, which I think was fan-made:

The second was narrated by Terry O’Quinn (Locke). The translation here is a bit different from the one widely circulated with the original promo. What before had been translated as “destiny” is here translated as “fate.” I actually liked “destiny” better, because of the way it echoed the language used in LOST.

Author of the chessboard poem in the Spanish LOST promo

Hand placing four-toed statue on chessboard (Detail from Cuatro LOST Season 6 promo)

Hand placing four-toed statue on chessboard (Detail from Cuatro Season 6 promo)

The Spanish station Cuatro, which ran the hauntingly beautiful chess-themed LOST Season 6 promo, announced a contest earlier today based on that promo.

Here’s my translation of what Cuatro posted on its site, done with my semi-remembered high school/college Spanish, with a lot of help from Google Translate. It may not be 100% accurate, but I think it’s close enough:

Carlton Cuse, the creator and writer of LOST, just sent a Twitter message saying that the promo Cuatro made for the final season of the series is the best LOST promo he has seen.

We propose a game based on the promo. The original text was not written by Cuatro. Can you tell us who the author is and what work it is from? Answer the question here, and get a photo signed by the stars of the series. The first person with the correct answer will get the prize.

To participate in the contest, you must be registered on the Cuatro site with your full name, address, phone, and email.

At the time I saw this post on the Cuatro site, there were already 11 pages of answers! It’s too late to win, but if you are playing along at home, the answer is below:
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Life is a Chessboard — a Season 6 promo from Spain

Proving once again that other country’s LOST promos are much cooler than our own, this promo from Spain presents the LOST characters as pieces on a chessboard, while a narrator recites this poem:

The wise man said
Life is a chessboard
of nights and days
where men are pawns of God
moved here and there
God allows them to kill
and kills
and piece by piece
he puts them back in the box
because there’s a destiny for every piece
for every player
and for God

Sl-LOST posted the video, translated the narration, and added the subtitles. Via TVOvermind.

Update 11/30/09: Post added with info about the author and source of the chessboard poem.

Update 2/20/10: The original promo has been pulled from YouTube, but there are two versions in English that are available, at least for now.

I’ve also posted a video showing how the promo was made.

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