For Love of the Game

A beautiful ode to chess asks—and refuses to decisively answer—the great questions of genius, competition, and life.

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Warning: This review contains spoilers about the entire series of The Queen’s Gambit.

It has been called the Royal Game. To this day, people debate whether it is an art or a sport or “just” a board game. Everyone from kings and ministers to everyday people played and play it. It has been the subject of portrayals and references in literature, poetry, TV, and movies. Charles Krauthammer famously loved it despite what he called the “scoff” of others.

But I have never encountered as beautiful an ode to chess as The Queen’s Gambit, a limited series available on Netflix that has become a binge-watching favorite during this time of lockdowns. Set in Kentucky in the 1960s, it tells the fictional story of Beth Harmon, an orphaned girl who rises up in the ranks of the chess world to become an international star and phenomenon amid tragedies and triumphs and travails of varying descriptions. 

The audience may note themes in this show familiar to modern viewers—questions of feminism and religion, of the Cold War and race relations. These things are certainly present and worth discussing, but they are not the core of this show. Instead they serve as important background for a forceful argument that the game itself is something that deserves to be taken seriously—as a sport, as an object of beauty and love, and perhaps even also as a metaphor for life itself.

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  1. Joe1776

    I'm a big chess fan. I enjoyed many of the same aspects of this series you did. As a kid knew the rules of chess but I thought it was all just thinking you move here I move there etc. Then Gary Kasparov played a computer that could calculate 100,000,000 positions per second and it would have a few minutes per move as well as having an opening book for the first several moves preprogramed in. I thought no way could he win. But he beat the machine! That was one of the reasons I figured I needed to learn a bit more about the game. And the rest is history. I have gotten quite a bit of enjoyment from learning the game and its history.


    But on Queens gambit, I just didn't understand some things. Why did they have to gratuitously bash Christians? It really wasn't important to the show, so why? It just seemed like randomly kicking a dog.

    They also seemed to downplay the evils of the soviet union. I was sort of hoping the plot would thicken with the journalist(D.L. Townes) being a Christian trying to help persecuted Christians behind the wall and perhaps her view maturing.

    See for example something like this:
    https://www.audible.com/pd/Gods-Smuggler-Audiobook/B002UZLLTW?ref=a_library_t_c5_libItem_&pf_rd_p=85df3330-9dc4-4a45-ae69-93cc2fc25ca4&pf_rd_r=SYZW02NV06MXCHA20221

    But no the series stayed one dimensional ended with her snubbing the US officer who would dare suggest the soviet union might be dangerous to her and jumping out of the car. Hoping for some complexity was hoping against hope. Her best and most loyal friend is "a radical" lawyer, Christians are terrible, and views that the soviet union might be unsafe are portrayed as overblown.

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    1. Joe1776

      Oh and I have to at least take issue here:

      "She may end up like her mother, she may end up like him or people like Garry Kasparov and Judith Polgar, giants of the game who are as well-adjusted as any."

      Polgar is well adjusted yes. But Gary Kasparov who claimed Deep Blue 2 cheated and basically blew all of the sponsorship computer related companies were offering Chess due to his ego is not what I would consider well adjusted. Kramnik is someone I consider "well adjusted" and he sort of ended the reign of champions with crazy egos with Anand and Carlsen following in his footsteps. Sadly until FIDE works itself out I don't think many companies will want to attach their brand to chess.

      Other observations chess fans may have noticed.

      Modern Chess Openings was a key book for her learning just like perhaps legendary stories about Bobby Fischer.

      The one guy from Russia with the hair is likely based loosely on Tal - at least I that's what I thought. But it is interesting that Tal made fun of Fischer when he came over instead of being especially gracious. But by all accounts Tal despite making fun of Fischer seemed a good natured person. I love some of his quotes like when he was asked why do you like to sacrifice your pieces so much? He responded with something like, actually I prefer to sacrifice my opponents pieces.


      It is also interesting that they portrayed what Fischer considered unfair collusion of Russians as a positive of the soviet system.

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    Kevin Johnson

    Great review of a great series.

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  3. TragicMishap

    "The three men look at Harmon with a devilish look in their eye, something that might have hinted at a sexual pile-up in another show. Here it leads to an aggressive, almost unending series of games between Harmon and the men.

    If you think it’s “just a game,” this is odd and even weird. If you understand this is about real, non-sexual love for something, it makes perfect sense."

    Um, you totally misread that scene. The three men brought the other pretty girl with them because they suspect that Harmon is gay, and they are setting her up with the girl, whom Harmon later sleeps with. That is a sexual scene.

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      Paul Britton

      Hmm. If so, it went right over my head.

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    2. Jess

      IMO, Cleo is bisexual (or possibly straight and a Russian agent).

      The scene in Benny’s apartment is like Beth’s final exam after her training. The men are testing Beth, and celebrating her skill as she exceeds their expectations. The sexual undercurrent (in my mind) is Benny’s appreciation for Beth’s ability, and how hard she has worked to hone it. Her mastery over the other men, over him, and over the game, is irresistible.

      The scene in Paris when Cleo tempts Beth to come to the bar before her big match is open to interpretation. It’s hard to believe that Cleo just happened to show up at the worst time for Beth, and then uses her wiles to lure Beth into self-sabotage. Whether they had sex, or just passed out in the same bed is unknown and unimportant. Subsequently, Beth goes into a days- long drug and alcohol binge.

      Beth’s chess friends and mentors are much healthier for her than Cleo, due to their discipline and dependability.

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      1. Joe1776

        Yes I was wondering the same. Is Cleo a Russian agent? I think this could have been much more interesting. Hopefully future episodes will add more dimension.

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    Phil H

    "On the one hand, this is a purely meritocratic world (at least in theory; reality for women in chess was and remains complicated). "

    As a onetime tournament chess player mostly in my college days (never with a high rating), I've wondered why that is. The chess playing field between a man and a woman, all 64 squares of it, should be completely level.

    And yet, the best woman player in the world basically plays at the level of any number of male international grandmasters.

    I can think of 2 possible reasons:

    - Men on average have more of the neurological traits that lead to success in chess, like the ability to analyze hess positions.

    - Men are more ambitious than women.

    A serious investigation into this question will tell us a lot about what makes men and women different, psychologically and emotionally.

    (I might even get around to watching this series).

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    1. Jess

      It may have to do with who is more likely to be willing to sacrifice things outside of chess (relationships, family, broader interests). I also wonder whether being on the autism spectrum may be connected to success in chess.

      About four times as many males as females are diagnosed with autism. It is not known whether this is due to the actual prevalence or the way autism is defined and diagnosed. In any case, I think some traits of people with high functioning autism (Aspergers) would lend themselves to high level performance in chess.

      Beth in The Queen’s Gambit has some of those traits. Part of what I loved about the series was watching her improve in her ability to connect to others, which also ending up improving her chess game.

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    rlritt

    I played chess when I was 20 yrs old and married for a short period to my ex husband who was French. We were immensely immature and totally incompatible. We spent hours playing chess. I became very good because I learned a few strategies that always worked if I
    followed them. I never considered that a skill or sign of brilliance. It was just a rote skill that I never use now because I played so much that the thought of playing now gives me a headache. When watch this show which I love, I assume they just know many more set strategies. I also relate to Beth's cluelessness away from the chess board.

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    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    "The Queen's Gambit" is only incidentally about chess, and although I applaud Mr. Woolf's fine review of the series here, I fear that this review — like two or three others I've read — does little or nothing to entice potential viewers who are not chess players, or who even actively dislike the game.

    And there are many of those people. Indeed, I'm one of them. And recognizing that, I almost did not even begin "The Queen's Gambit."

    BUT I LOVED THIS SERIES, because, as I said above, it's only incidentally about chess — and everything else that the series IS about, is presented with an astonishing degree of art and sophisticated story-telling.

    As Mr. Woolf correctly notes (but buries deep in his review), "this [series] is about real, non-sexual love for something" — which just happens to be chess. It is about passions — passions we can indulge ourselves in, passions we can use to escape that which is oppressive and horrifying, passions in which we can find surprisingly unlikely allies who otherwise would remain unknown, inaccessible, and both literally and figuratively foreign.

    The best parallel I can think of, one that might sing to a few skeptics and persuade them to invest an hour in the first episode, is "Mad Men," which is only incidentally about Madison Avenue and advertising. Mr. Woolf's review mentions, but in my opinion gives short shrift to, the absolutely compelling period realism. I'm of the age when such fidelity to history isn't educating me, but REMINDING me — and I can't count the number of times when the sets, the set dressings, the costumes, even the background noises, all brought me up short, prompted me to grab the remote and rewind a bit, and exclaim, "Yes, they've genuinely captured what it felt like to live in semi-rural America in 1963 or 1968. My God, how we've changed in some ways — but not in others!"

    The casting was inspired. The actors are brilliant. The dialog is snappy. And the series lead — Anya Taylor-Joy — is an astonishing new talent, lovely and vastly deep. To call her performance "compelling" would be wholly inadequate; "riveting" is slightly closer.

    My plea to those of you who haven't tried this series, then, is simply this: Don't let the fact that it's ostensibly about chess put you off.

    I'm very much looking forward to another season.

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      Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

      Further internet browsing suggests that there may be no second season. That would be a defensible decision; the ending of this "limited series" was certainly satisfying, and these episodes stand very nicely on their own.

      But I join the many fans who hope Netflix and the show's producers and talent can be persuaded to continue.

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      1. Joe1776

        I found the series pretty one dimensional. Christians are bad, the fear of communism is overblown and leftist radicals are the best friends you can have. Did anything in the show even remotely disrupt that view?

        I would love some additional episodes that bring the time into better focus and address some of the realities of the soviet union and the cold war.

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        Aylene Wright

        Haven't commented so far as I haven't seen this, but I actually think that it may be best to leave this one as a miniseries, which is one medium that has fallen out of favor on TV this century, but when done well, can be very good, and can be ruined if they attempt to extend it.

        (While not a miniseries, I think the quality of Downton Abbey really suffered when they decided to keep on after the initial 3 year story arc, meaning that actors & actresses left the show, resulting in characters being killed off, etc.)

        And for the younger Members who may not be familiar with mini-series: when broadcast TV was still dominant and many people didn't have cable (1970s - 1990s), the "Miniseries" that were mostly meant to be one time events, produced some quality TV such as "Roots". Now, I know there was eventually a Roots 2, and eventually a "Queen" miniseries that focused on a maternal ancestor. But those were sequels in the sense of movie sequels more than planned second seasons.

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          Paul Britton

          May I mention the finest miniseries of all time: Brideshead Revisited, with Jeremy Irons. Hard to believe that was 40 years ago.

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          Aylene Wright

          PS re DA: I should probably say "3 series arc" as in the UK, seasons are called series, and the first 3 years of the show covered way more than 3 years of story time.

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            Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

            Clearly having this as a stand-alone set — called a "limited series" by Netflix — was their original intent.

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      rlritt

      It is really good.

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      Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

      No, the photo in this link is not an outtake from the series — but it could have been, as those of you who've already seen the series will, I think, instantly recognize.

      https://www.beldar.org/2021/1970ish%20Billy%20Jack%40Optimist%20Oratorical.jpg

      It's actually me, as pictured on the front page of the Lamesa [Texas] Press-Reporter in about 1970 or so, as an eighth-grader receiving a trophy for winning the local Optimist Oratorical Contest. If you've seen the series already, you'll understand my instant identification with one of the minor characters mentioned in Mr. Woolf's review.

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        Rev Snow

        You had me at Billy Jack.

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          Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

          Sharp eyes! That's how I'm STILL known in my hometown.

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            Rev Snow

            Watch his feet!

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    Rev Snow

    Worth noting that Beth Harmon has to live with not only the trauma of her mother's violent end, but with all the questions about whether she has inherited her mother's instability as well as her brilliance. The series raises worries about the connection between genius and madness in several places.

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    1. FJR - Atlanta

      Not sure she could inherit her mother’s instability as she was adopted.

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        Rev Snow

        Her biological mother is featured in many flashbacks. Accomplished mathematician, dispenser of dubious life advice, and desperate attempter of murder-suicide.

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      rlritt

      I also think the character is an alcoholic which would explain her erratic behavior.

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    EricRemcon@gmail

    Great in depth review! Much more than a smattering of spoilers and actor performance critiques. I have seen the show and can agree with the insights provided in this breakdown. The only omission is a discussion of the series ending (SPOILER- its over the top positive, similar to Rocky IV).

    I highly recommend the show and this review.

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  9. Shaybult

    I don't play chess but loved The Queen's Gambit anyway. Excellent series. And this review was spot on.

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    Victor Clairmont

    I play checkers.

    .




    ..





    Kidding! Chess is great. I am the next Garry Kasparov (in my mind). Fun review and maybe I will check the show out.

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      rlritt

      You might like it. Its well made and while some scenes are tragic, it's never maudlin or sentimental.

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      Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

      I'm not going to add to the many spoilers already in Mr. Woolf's review, but I assure you, Mr. Clairmont, that checkers is dealt with, briefly but definitively.

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        Victor Clairmont

        Hmmm, maybe I should watch it then.

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