The Queen’s Gambit

This is not my first or second time watching The Queen’s Gambit, but it is my first time watching as a beginner chess player. The first few times I watched the series, I was just in awe of how the game works. It was my first time paying attention to what chess was about, but I totally forgot about my desire to learn because I had other pressing matters at that time.

About the series

The Queen’s Gambit is a 2020 series about an orphan, Elizabeth Harmon, who learned how to play chess from a janitor in the basement of her orphanage after miraculously surviving a car accident.

She had a really hard time adjusting and making friends when she got there until her encounter with the janitor. After that encounter, she began learning how to play physically and mentally. Already, she was so good at math that it didn’t take her so long to get all that she needed to know.

She later got adopted, and as finances became a problem for her mother, she found a way out with chess tournaments. She won almost every tournament she played except for the ones she allowed anger to cloud her thoughts. Through it all, she was also suffering from addiction to tranquilizers, as they helped with her imaginative world anytime she was playing. In the end, she played the world champion and then beat him strategically.

My Thoughts

First of all, for a chess series, you’d think it’ll be boring and you’re going to sit behind your screen watching people move rooks and queens up and down. But no, it wasn’t like that at all. In fact, you can actually count the number of times they showed a full game from start to finish while fixating the camera on the chessboard.

They made sure to make it more about her struggles, her addiction and the things she went through to get to the top. And that’s something I find very powerful because most times, we are only focused on people’s successes without really thinking about the price they had to pay to be up there.

Another thing I think is really great about this series is the emotional acting. I’ve been playing chess for a number of days now, and I must say it made me appreciate the series more. Each time she won or lost, I could feel it. Especially she couldn’t see what was ahead of her before getting cornered. And this made me really fall in love even more.

My favorite thing about this series definitely has to be Beth’s dresses. Those in charge of that did a really great job. She was always decent and very stylish. And all her clothes really suited her body and character. I am very sure a lot of work went into this, and I give them their flowers.

Everything about this series is just so good, and no, you don’t have to know how to play chess before watching. But then if you know how to, you’d really appreciate it. Oh, and by the way, the Queen’s Gambit is an opening in chess in case you were wondering. 9/10 for this masterpiece.

Images are from IMDb