A must-watch: The Queen’s Gambit

by Conrad Schormann
10/26/2020 – On Friday, October 23, Netflix started the "The Queen's Gambit", a new series, in which chess plays a major role. The series is based on the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, and caused enthusiastic reactions from chess players and non-chess players alike. Conrad Schormann has collected some of them.

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A must-watch: The Queen’s Gambit

David Llada, renowned chess photographer from Spain and FIDE's head of marketing, is soccer fan. And usually the match Real Madrid against FC Barcelona, "El Clasico", as they say in Spain, is a must for him. But this weekend he decided against the "Clasico" and for chess. He had seen the first episode of "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix, and it so captivated him that he immediately watched the second one.

"The Queen's Gambit" has been eagerly awaited in chess circles. In the center of the plot is chess master Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. Blessed with an extraordinary gift for chess but tormented by her addictions, Beth has to face strong opponents and inner demons.

For the common chess player it is of course first of all important whether everything is going right in chess. Peter Doggers pursued this question in conversation with producer, director and author Scott Frank.

Doggers' conclusion: "The chess is done right."

So that's settled. Then let's have a look how the series has been received on Twitter. A selection:

SPOILER ALERT

Chess YouTuber agadmator already took a look at the decisive game shown in the series:

A modern classic: Walter Tevis' "The Queen's Gambit".

First published at Perlen vom Bodensee (Translation from German: Johannes Fischer)

The official trailer

Links

Conrad Schormann, skilled newspaper editor, runs an agency for editing and communication in Überlingen, at Lake Constance. But he lacks time to play chess which is partly due to the fact that he very much likes to write about it, for Chessbase, in the Reddit chess forum, or for his chess teaching blog Perlen vom Bodensee...

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Wodzu Wodzu 11/10/2020 05:28
@bbrodinsky I disagree, from top of my head I can name such examples as: Karpov (1951) - learned to play at age of 4, Candidate Master at age of 11. Capablanca(1888) learned to play at age of 4. Samuel Reshevsky(1911) learned to play at age of 4 So yes, I am a historically accurate. I could probably name a 100 of great chess players who could beat her when they were six years old. Don't even get me started that she is a female. I thought that males and females are on equal rights and have equal brains. As long as we agree to that, she can't be seen as extraordinary.

@turok what is wrong in wanting for chess to be depicted properly? It could only do good for the show because more people would want to watch it. I get that people enjoy this show, I would want to enjoy it too, but I can't, because the inaccuracies are too big for me. I just can't put my suspension of disbelief at so high level.
turok turok 11/5/2020 05:40
A pet peeve on mine is when chess players cannot just enjoy a story without blasting about a piece being wrong on the board or trying to judge a chess board that is meant only to be a prop. Come on this story is about chess yes but it is also about an orphan who uses chess to succeed but also falter in many ways. And here we have people looking for chess accuracies when those who love it for its great story line may not know chess and will never know the difference. One thing that people may not notice as they try and compare and this comes from an organizer who popularized female chess even before polar started doing things in the USA. We started having female chess ONLY tournaments when people said we were demeaning them. What they didn't understand is it was about allowing females to be female without the males putting them down or having females having to worry about the males in the room. So our 1st female in the USA and world was the Anjelina belakovskia chess championships in AZ. I bring this up because in this movie it shows the male dominance not in chess but the attitudes of a male dominated sports back in the days and to be honest that has been only a recent change in the USA. WE literally had people even females boycotting our championships because the males were saying we were demeaning females hahaha. In this movie you see how in the end those same males who thought less of her finally not only recognized her as a top player but also as a an individual person as well.
bbrodinsky bbrodinsky 11/4/2020 04:40
Wodzu, most of your statements are true, but do not distract from still greatly enjoying the series. However your first statement is historically inaccurate. Yes, for today, a 10-year old strong player would not be exceptional. However in the early 60's, a 10 year old strong player was almost unknown. And ESPECIALLY a female, I believe that WAS unknown. without computers, it was almost impossible.
bbrodinsky bbrodinsky 11/4/2020 04:34
what a great series it was! The poor tournament conditions reminded me of my first tournament in Albee Square , Brooklyn. 1970. I forget if it was a hotel or a theater, but when you walked up the steps, some of the steps buckled. So did the floors in certain places. The dump was condemned soon after...
So, anybody who watches Queen's Gambit, and doesn't believe the dilapidated playing conditions way back then in the United States, I'm here to verify the accuracy of those scenes! Oh, what memories!
Henrybird1883 Henrybird1883 11/1/2020 11:30
If you are unhappy with the chess in this series, you will never be happy with any chess scenes in movies or TV. I can’t believe some complain about minor things. Sure, they took a bit of poetic license to make things more interesting to viewers, many of whom do not play chess, but they knew they were doing it and it was fine. Sure, trash talking during the game is rare, but it could happen. Yes, some moves are blitzed out without immediately recording them. I can tell you from my own games, people do that.
Bottom line- this show gets all the chess stuff right. How many times have we laughed or cringed or wanted to kick the screen in at chess scenes in tv or movies? In a Columbo episode, the grandmaster loses to Fools Mate. Magnum, P. I. - watch out for the Castle Blitz or the little known Roskyelanovich Maneuver( known to only 5 players in the World!), the white square not in the right corner, king and queen positions switched, absurd positions on the board, checkmate( oh, what a surprise, I thought I was winning!), modern players referring to moves such as “knight to king’s bishop three”etc.
But none of that nonsense here. The games are believable, realistic tournaments, games, pieces( no ridiculous non Staunton sets here!), the way the players handled the pieces IS real looking.
This is a great series for all. Whether you play chess or not.
Wodzu Wodzu 10/31/2020 12:26
@PurpDriv2 you have no arguments besides insulting other people. I pity you.
PurpDriv2 PurpDriv2 10/30/2020 10:38
@Wodzu yes, a real patzer mindset indeed.
Wodzu Wodzu 10/30/2020 12:41
Sorry guys, but in terms of chess accuracy this is awful and I am not even a strong player (1800-2000). I saw only two episodes so far and I've found like 5 cringy moments:

1. Calling a 10 year girl "an exceptional". There is nothing exceptional at this age for a promising chess player. I would understand if she had 4 or 5 years but 10!?
2. Giving an impression that 2150 ELO player is "close to beeing a grandmaster" is a pure insult.
3. Commenting out loud when other players are playing - unacceptable (never saw such behaviour).
4. In 2nd epsiode, she is disrespecting his opponent by telling him what she will do, telling him to stop playing etc. Who behaves like that?
5. If she is so good, why she needs a nod from a guy to tell her to not accept a draw. - Silly, just silly.
6. She is playing against the same guy who gave her "a nod". She has knight and rook, he has rook and 3 pawns. He has at least a draw if not winning. He makes a nonsense move allowing her to fork king and rook. Then he is calling her "really something"!

I don't understand, is it so hard to hire a consultant, to prepare some positions for their games? A 1600 rated player would do that.

I understand this is an enjoyable series for someone who doesn't know how to play a chess, but it is insulting even for a patzer like me.
PurpDriv2 PurpDriv2 10/28/2020 05:52
@pfitschigogerl I doubt you did something interesting in your life. RIP
pfitschigogerl pfitschigogerl 10/28/2020 12:15
O.K. series produced with netflix money, which shows. Many characters very poorly developed, though (Mr. Wheatley, Beltik etc, Townes just makes you cringe) The chess bits, although for some reason highly praised, are just as horrible as always. No thinking at the board, clumsy handling of pieces and clock, constant staring into the opponent´s eyes, hardly any recording of moves. One wonders what Pandolfini/Kasparov were doing
JimNvegas JimNvegas 10/27/2020 07:16
Really enjoyed watching this long awaited series. There is very little to find fault with since it obviously was produced along side consulting chess professionals. I had read the book several years ago and must say I found the video more entertaining. However the ending is a little vague, leaving you to determine her final outcome.
zupermag zupermag 10/27/2020 06:05
For the moment I have watched 1st episode only. Very nice! In terms of accuracy, my only real "remark" is when, after the only "1.d4" he says "It's called Queen's Gambit" :)
James Satrapa James Satrapa 10/27/2020 03:45
Nice to see a chess series at all, let alone one that is properly done and highly enjoyable, both for the chess and for the drama.

What's especially pleasing about the chess set up is that not only are the boards properly set up and the games are real/realistic but that the way Harmon handles the pieces and the clock is consistent with they way a strong chess player caresses and moves the pieces. I can often tell when a player is better or worse than me just by the way she or he handles the pieces, and that organic familiarity with the chess board that all masters display is excellently depicted in this series.

Kudos to the director and to everyone involved, especially in employing Kasparov and Pandolfini as consultants.

PS: Does anyone know why this series is set in the 1960s?
griffgruff griffgruff 10/26/2020 02:26
Watched first two episodes - a really great start to the series.
Looking forward to watching the rest
PauloSunao PauloSunao 10/26/2020 01:51
An incredible series :-o They have created "Borov" (like Karpov) world chess champion, russian, that has written "My life in Chess" :-o
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