The Queen's Gambit

[cacciaguida]

Anyone watching this?

New Netflix series about a young orphan girl who becomes a chess prodigy.

7 eps, I'm half-way through and enjoying it.

It neatly touches on addiction, family, growing up as a girl in America in the 60s(I think?) and is well carried by the lead, Anya Taylor-Joy.

I'd not heard of her before but she's in pretty much every scene and delivers a strong performance, I think.

Any fans out here?

I should also say that the chess is very nicely done, with all legal moves and real positions and proper strategies.

Only slight quibble is with the speed at which they play moves, but I'm allowing artistic license there, especially as they do reference that the games last for hours.

[bgmnts]

My mother went through it all in a day and said it was really good.

[cacciaguida]

My mother went through it all in a day

Getting this vibe from your review

https://twitter.com/insaneletterbox/status/1262596620186726401?lang=en

[Nobody Soup]

Watched this over 2 nights, after the first night I couldn't wait to get round to it again. All boils to a pretty rubbish conclusion though.

I play chess and it's nicely done and never overly sensationalised (eg. "haha I beat you." "think again, despite being an expert with years of training you've missed a mate in 1." "whaaaa?") the players talk like real chess players and the references are generally accurate.

Sadly though it became a total fairytale fantasy by the end, don't do drugs, smash the commies, girls rule, America! Fuck yeah! Any pretense it had of being about troubled genius, sexism or anything just ended up feeling hollow when it's plot culminated in more predictable feelgood than kids film would have the barefaced cheek to try and pull off.

[Wet Blanket]

Haven't finished it yet but really enjoying it. I play chess too and agree that this element is by and large very authentic, even if that world is portrayed as much more glamorous and populated by people who are way too good looking; Garry Kasparov was a consultant apparently.

The drama is a bit low stakes; the character gets into situations that I initially think could expose her to all sorts violence or discrimination but they never do, which is a bit of a cop out, but in its fairy tale way it's very watchable

[surreal]

Just finished, thought it was terrific.  It was so well put together I expected it to be based on a true story but apparently just a novel.  Quite a surprise, best thing I've seen on Netflix in a while.  Recommended.

[touchingcloth]

I haven't watched this, mainly because I can't be dealing with chess flicks with fake chess. I REFUSE

[holyzombiejesus]

well carried by the lead, Anya Taylor-Joy.

I'd not heard of her before but she's in pretty much every scene and delivers a strong performance, I think.

Check out The vvitch/ The Witch. She's brilliant in that.

[Keebleman]

Read the book years and years ago but remember hardly anything about it, to the extent that I could have sworn the protagonist was a young boy.  Might give this a look.

The author, Walter Tevis, is one of those writers whose work spans genre and tone to the extent that you would hardly credit one person could be the source for such variety.  He also wrote the  novels The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

[cacciaguida]

Check out The vvitch/ The Witch. She's brilliant in that.

Been meaning to watch this for ages because of Finchy, but now I know she's in it I will doubly mean to vvatch it

[cacciaguida]

I haven't watched this, mainly because I can't be dealing with chess flicks with fake chess. I REFUSE

All the chess games that are in the show (either featuring prominently or just a move here and there) are based off real games.

With the exception of the fact that they move far too quickly, the chess is extremely accurate

[olliebean]

I'm a little put off by the fact that the majority of the praise here seems to be based on the authenticity of the chess. Makes it sound rather like a thing specifically for chess geeks.

[sevendaughters]

15 minutes in and it looks like it was shot and then transmitted through the F LUX thing on Macs when you use them late at night.

No comment on the quality but it doesn't seem like it will have the heft of a Dennis Potter or whatever, but I haven't been annoyed yet.

[sevendaughters]

the music in this is really overbearing and they did a close-up on the person who says the title of the show as if to overstate its significance just a littttttle.

the chess is whatever but it's basically about addiction. it could be any sport or endeavour.

[sevendaughters]

jabbed off halfway thru ep 2. predictable shite. features the worst 'pretend playing piano' scene ever. the life has been colour-graded out of this.

[the science eel]

jabbed off halfway thru ep 2. predictable shite. features the worst 'pretend playing piano' scene ever. the life has been colour-graded out of this.

Ignore this fella.

It's very good.

[thecuriousorange]

Is there a scene where two unsmiling people flirt while playing chess?

[Wet Blanket]

Sadly though it became a total fairytale fantasy by the end, don't do drugs, smash the commies, girls rule, America! Fuck yeah! Any pretense it had of being about troubled genius, sexism or anything just ended up feeling hollow when it's plot culminated in more predictable feelgood than kids film would have the barefaced cheek to try and pull off.

Finished this last night and yeah, that final episode is pretty dreadful. They needed to get David Lynch in to film one of his codas where it turns out everything preceding was a fantasy and the reality is unbearably awful

[ersatz99]

Seeing as it was mentioned early on I was waiting for the touch-nove rule to come into play at some point near the finale.

[SteveDave]

There was a door handle in the first episode that looked far too modern so I turned it off.

[Nobody Soup]

here's my chess nerd out.

I felt the lack of discussion about the characters of the openings kind of made it miss a narrative beat. usually in things about someone really into an art they give you an in to the art by focusing on one small part, whether it was the rach 3 in shine, caravan in whiplash, the crane kick in karate kid, summit.

they sort of suggested this with schibel mentioning that she should play the sicillian, but dropped it. her playing the queens gambit in her final game sort of meant nothing because no one had mentioned anything about openings or what they might say about the psyche of the player. "capablanca played d4 because..." is literally all you would have needed.

[cacciaguida]

here's my chess nerd out.

I felt the lack of discussion about the characters of the openings kind of made it miss a narrative beat. usually in things about someone really into an art they give you an in to the art by focusing on one small part, whether it was the rach 3 in shine, caravan in whiplash, the crane kick in karate kid, summit.

they sort of suggested this with schibel mentioning that she should play the sicillian, but dropped it. her playing the queens gambit in her final game sort of meant nothing because no one had mentioned anything about openings or what they might say about the psyche of the player. "capablanca played d4 because..." is literally all you would have needed.

Yeah kind of agree with this. She's been an e4 player her whole career - like Fischer - and her games seem to be attacking, tactical, sharp. She, and her openings, are intuitive and natural rather than studied and by the book.

First time she plays Borgov she takes him on at his own game, playing a closed Sicilian - a much slower more positional game. She's not true to her style and gets roundly beaten.

Then, in the final game, she plays d4 and the queens gambit. This goes against my previous comment that she lost previously because she didn't play her natural cavalier approach. but hey.

Most surprisingly, the Soviet responds to the opening with the Albin Counter Gambit. It's a quirky response in blitz or bullet but no GM or serious player would play it in longer time controls nowadays as it's been proven to be unsound and gives white a much better position.

I don't know why Borgov would play that - seems much more or a Harmon move to go for? The soviets would massacre him for such folly, surely?

But yeah, perhaps a missed opportunity not to link openings to narrative, but equally could end up being overkill for non-chess players

[Nobody Soup]

Yeah i also thought that about playing d4 when they'd characterised her as a romantic player. But that's definitely something only a player would notice. you could have had her play d4 as some sort of sign of growth and maturity, getting to understand the sort of player borgov is. Maybe she could have played lots of gambits and then been convinced that the queen's gambit is the only sound gambit or something.

I get the feeling it was a nod to Fisher mixing it up in the world championship but nothing more, for me it was a missed opportunity to really show the audience how chess players feel about chess.

[olliebean]

Really not dispelling my impression that this is aimed at chess geeks.

[cacciaguida]

Really not dispelling my impression that this is aimed at chess geeks.

Ha! Many others are enjoying the show with little to no knowledge of chess. The sort of detail we are going into is only hinted at in the actual eps.

[kidsick5000]

Loved it.
Though having no clue about where it was going, the whole thing about men in the basement playing chess with a young girl had an edge to it they makers probably didn't intend.

They could have made the head of the other school slightly less of a sweaty mess.

Loved the arc with the mother. Such a fresh take instead of going for the obvious.

[katzenjammer]

It's basically chess Rocky isn't it?

[evilcommiedictator]

THIS CHESS GAME IS DEDICATED TO THE BRAVE MUJAHEDDIN FIGHTERS OF AFGHANISTAN

[sevendaughters]

there's class sympathy in Rocky

[Dex Sawash]

Do you actually get to see the Queen's gambit?

asking for a friend