I’ve always found the relationship between chess and drama a bit odd. The game’s central metaphor is one of war, of a battle between light and dark forces. When the game is played well, between two skilled players, they inhabit, for the duration of the game, a strenuous mental struggle with the other player and—perhaps even more so—themselves. Chess is a struggle to find the right solution to an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of problems. It is an attempt to find the weaknesses of your opponent and it’s also an attempt to overcome self-doubt and inner demons. The game should have, you would think, produced any number of films, plays, and novels.
Yet it can be quite boring to watch. There is a chess literature out there, and a few minor stabs at making films; they have been tepid affairs at best. The best might be Bobby Fisher Against the World, a HBO documentary about the troubled American chess genius that will provide curious viewers more historical context for the cold war era chess that The Queen’s Gambit inhabits.
How satisfying it was, then, to watch Netflix produce a series, The Queen’s Gambit—based on Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel of the same name—which manages to find interesting narrative techniques that bring some of the drama of the game to life. The series, in explicit and implicit ways, asks viewers to make direct comparisons between the central character’s chess playing and her relationship to life. Beth Harmon, a little girl from Kentucky left an orphan by a disinterested father and a suicidal mother during the American 1960s, is playing a chess game against the world, and she is playing against the demons of her troubled past. Alcohol and tranquilizers are her coping tools as well as her key weakness.
Reviewers have, by and large, loved the series. The New Yorker names it “The Most Satisfying Show On Television.” The New York Times found the latter chapter of the seven part series a little weaker than the show’s opening moves, but still makes it clear that the show is worthy of a Netflix . The Guardian highlights some of the show’s more moments—Harmon’s interaction with a game and a world fairly well-known for its sexism, even misogyny, ends up being relatively gentle due to her talent. As The Guardian’s Adrian Horton points out, the fairy tale that Beth’s talent and excellence is enough to pull her past these deep social ills is a world that is pleasant to live in for seven hours.
The clothes, the wallpaper, the phones that make those funny noises when they have been left off the hook, the striking Soviet hotel room in the final chapter, the gorgeous Paris hotel room in the opening sequence, the way men in the mid sixties could wear a tie, the , the set designs, the wardrobe, and the general paraphernalia of The Queen’s Gambit are simply not to be missed. Like a distinctive, luxury chess set, The Queen’s Gambit is an object of intense aesthetic pleasure, even when it shows the occasional narrative flaw. After you finish the show, expect to find yourself in search of a dry martini, an excellent chess set, and a luxury European hotel room.
Many of my ESL students have already reported binging on the show’s seven episodes for all these reasons and more. The English is occasionally period-specific, replicating the slang of the 60s, but for the most part the language and the accents are rendered simply and accurately. The Queen’s Gambit gambles on an odd narrative premise. It pulls off a surprising win despite any number of potential storytelling traps.
by Nathan R. Elliott
i. “The Queen’s Gambit is the Most Satisfying Show on Television.” The New Yorker, Nov 13, 2020.
Advanced. 10 mins.
ii. “The Queen’s Gambit Review: Coming of Age, One Move at a Time.” The New York Times, Oct 21, 2020.
Intermediate. 6 mins.
iii. “How The Queen’s Gambit Became Netflix’s Unlikeliest Hit of the Year.” The Guardian, Nov 26, 2020.
Intermediate/Advanced. 7 mins.