I just saw the French name of the mini series: "Le jeu de la Dame". As an intellectual, different languages are always interesting.
This show has come to Netflix and I like it; have you seen it?
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Oct 30, 2020
0
#4
I'm watching the last episode of the series (or perhaps season, not sure if it ends or might have another season). I really enjoy it.
If you are a chess player you will enjoy the regular references to chess openings that you know. And a few ones that are rare today (I'd never heard of the levenfish, though I don't play the Sicilian). You aren't going to learn chess from it, but they generally do the chess right. (e.g. being a better speed chess player doesn't make you a better tournament player). But I don't think a chess background is really necessary to enjoy it.
It has themes related to the gifted child who becomes and adult. There are themes of substance abuse. Those who know a bit of the history of Bobby Fischer or other chess players with mental issues or substance abuse issues, may see some parallels.
While it doesn't ignore the sexism in chess, I do feel it down plays it a bit. While she deals with some skepticism early on, almost all the men she beat take it graciously. But trying to handle sexism well while telling a story is hard to do.*
So overall I recommend it. Though they don't actually play the Queen's gambit very often in the book. The Sicilian is way more common, which would be historically accurate if I recall my chess opening history correctly.
* For a great book that deals with sexism in the 1950s and 1960s amazingly well while telling a fantastic story, I highly recommend The Calculating Star by Mary Robinette Kowal.
Oct 12, 2021
0
#5
It is quite an interesting movie, combining two of my most valued (according to me) elements that a movie should have at least one of, them being chess or that exact era and it’s style.
I am always fascinated by the past, it gives a glimpse to the present and the future.
it is a decent accurate depiction to a degree.
Queen's Gambit
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10048342/
I can summarize a little bit. It is based on a novel. The main character is orphaned and at the orphanage she finds a chess teacher.
She does a lot of things a natural chess champion might do. She uses few words, she figures out patterns very fast, she imagines chess positions when she is supposed to be sleeping, she's very competitive and eager to learn, she seeks out competition and more chess information wherever she goes
I can't say much about the intellectual content of it. It is set back in the 1950s. I often feel like I should pause the video to write down the position and see if the movie is realistic. It has real tournaments mentioned and depicted like Las Vegas I think was US Open, and there's a US Championship, and they go to one east coast city I think Boston? on a plane - it's a very well done movie for chess nostalgia from some time before I was born.
I am finding it very enticing to watch. It has 7 episodes and I am not sure what the length is, maybe an hour, or 1.5 hours. I can see it on Netflix. I need to tell batgirl about it who writes the historical chess articles here on chess.com but I suppose I will not be first to tell her.