Netflix's Series Queen's Gambit and it's relation to pool (Walter Tevis)

[Benward452]

EDIT: I have been off of the forums for a while and it seems like this was already discussed a bit here: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/queens-gambit-netflix.521600/unread. I didn't mean to double post but didn't go back two weeks to see this was already talked about before posting.

I don't know how many of you have been watching the Queen's Gambit on Netflix, but it's based on a book of the same name by Walter Tevis, celebrated author of The Hustler.

The series, based in the 60s, follows a female protagonist who develops into a chess prodigy through the mentorship of an unlikely character which leads her to an eventual battle against Russia's best.

I won't spoil the series (I thought it was fantastic) and I haven't read the book, but the story is captivating and the character development is interesting and somewhat realistic. On top of this, it has an excellent soundtrack that feels tightly intertwined into the story.

I think this show could help propel chess into a larger audience like Walter Tevis' book, The Hustler, did for pool when it was created into one of our favorite movies.

When I was watching the series I thought a lot about how inserting billiards instead of chess could have lead to a similarly captivating series. It's a shame that this wasn't written for pool.

I will be curious to see if others have watched this and if you made this connection to pool and Walter Tevis.

Have a great day!

 

[Patrick Johnson]

I watched this and (mostly) enjoyed it, but I don't really see any connection or similarities to pool.

And I couldn't help but laugh at the film's efforts to make drama out of chess competition - two people staring at each other with "meaningful" expressions while they make seemingly random moves with chess pieces. That describes pretty much all of the "most dramatic" scenes.

Still, it's by Tevis, so I enjoyed that part of it...

pj
chgo

 

[billiardshot]

Another Look takes on Walter Tevis’s “Queen’s Gambit.” And the author’s son remembers playing chess with dad.​

I post this in another thread earlier.....

Another Look takes on Walter Tevis’s “Queen’s Gambit.” And the author’s son remembers playing chess with dad.

On January 29, Another Look will hold its winter event to discuss The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 29, in the Bechtel Conference Center in Encina Hall on the Stanford campus. (Update: podcast of the event is here.) Author Walter Tevis...

bookhaven.stanford.edu

 

[sjm]

I watched the entire series and liked it a lot. The female lead, in particular, was superb and gave a very memorable performance.

It was compelling drama about an introverted, insecure, young lady finding her comfort zone in the similarly introverted world of serious chess competition, in which most of the elite are one-dimensional geniuses with little to no time to interact with those outside of their own circle or enjoy any of life's pursuits outside of chess. Many of the top players, it seemed, thought about nothing but chess even when they were not playing it. In this sense, it delivers the opposite message to the excellent movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" in which it is demonstrated that a rising star of the game can still manage to find a balance between chess and life's other pursuits, and in this sense, the message in The Queen's Gambit is far less uplifting.

A defining scene for me was when Harmon played a young eleven year old Russian boy and he asked her whether America had drive in movies. He said he'd heard that his was so, but in Russia, he indicated, they did not. He added that he thought he would enjoy a drive in movie, She indicated that they had drive in movies in America, but then noted she had never been to one. The Russian prodigy had no access to this leisurely pursuit, but Harmon was simply unable to avail herself of it, for she was caught up in a world that shielded her from many ordinary social pursuits. She was, it seemed, as trapped in the world of chess as he was.

Great series, great story, but I doubt it will have the impact on chess that The Hustler had on pool.

 

[Patrick Johnson]

It was compelling drama about an introverted, insecure, young lady finding her comfort zone in the similarly introverted world of serious chess competition,

...she caught up in a world that shielded her from many ordinary social pursuits. She was, it seemed, as trapped in the world of chess as he was.

That and her substance issues were the most compelling aspects of the story (and the things it had most in common with pool) - I wish they had made those things more than background noise.

pj
chgo

 

[sjm]

That and her substance issues were the most compelling aspects of the story (and the things it had most in common with pool) - I wish they had made those things more than background noise.

pj
chgo

The substance abuse issue, to me, was of a very different nature than what we find in pool. Harmon had been given tranquilizing pills as part of her standard medical regimen as a student in the orphanage. When the law changed and disallowed this practice, she already was dependent on this medication, so her substance dependence was thrust upon her and was not a result of her own weaknesses or misjudgments.. This was a very sad side of her story.

 

[Benward452]

Pj,

The thing that reminded me most of pool, besides the substance abuse, was when the mom realized she had a talent on her hands and used her to begin making money for the family playing chess. After that, Beth was skipping school to enter tournaments and was the bread winner for the family.

A few RV owning pool parents have done this with their kids...

 

[ChrisinNC]

Great series, great story, but I doubt it will have the impact on chess that The Hustler had on pool.

I realize this is a revisited thread from last year, but after watching Queen’s Gambit recently for the second time (which I enjoyed even more than the first time) I thought I’d catch up on reading a few of the threads regarding this awesome series. I came across this one quote from an excellent post on Queen’s Gambit from Stu.

Stu, you may have to rethink your above quote you posted last November. The impact of this movie on the current boom in popularity of all things chess related and the huge increased sales of chess sets is well documented. It’s quite ironic that Walter Tevis was/is largely responsible for both!

 

[gcmortal]

I used to play a little chess. Bought that book the year it came out. The series has been a boost to chess interest, for sure. Hard to compare with the Hustler boom in that there is no simple equivalent in chess to hundreds of new pool halls. More online interest, more sets/books/etc sold should lead to more interest in organized chess but don't know how much. https://theboar.org/2021/01/the-impact-of-the-queens-gambit-on-the-game-of-chess/

 

[sjm]

I realize this is a revisited thread from last year, but after watching Queen’s Gambit recently for the second time (which I enjoyed even more than the first time) I thought I’d catch up on reading a few of the threads regarding this awesome series. I came across this one quote from an excellent post on Queen’s Gambit from Stu.

Stu, you may have to rethink your above quote you posted last November. The impact of this movie on the current boom in popularity of all things chess related and the huge increased sales of chess sets is well documented. It’s quite ironic that Walter Tevis was/is largely responsible for both!

Thanks for the update.

I'm pleased to learn of this. Since this thread, I've seen Anya Taylor Joy play the title role in the film "Emma", based on the Jane Austen novel. She was just fantastic. Everything Anya Taylor Joy related is also on the rise.

I'm happy for those who count themselves as chess enthusiasts. Chess was very big news during the cold war, and perhaps it will be very big news again.

 

[ChrisinNC]

Thanks for the update.

I'm pleased to learn of this. Since this thread, I've seen Anya Taylor Joy play the title role in the fil "Emma", based on the Jane Austen novel. She was just fantastic. Everything Anya Taylor Joy related is also on the rise.

I'm happy for those who count themselves as chess enthusiasts. Chess was very big news during the cold war, and perhaps it will be very big news again.

The one thing I didn’t understand from a technical aspect even though I’m not a chess player, was in the world championship finals in the last episode in which there were clearly only 8 players involved.

5 wins got her to her final match against Borgov. Running pool tournaments for 25 years, I don’t see any format in which that happens. If it is a true double elimination, her 7th match, not her 6th match would have been her final round robin match and the chance of them both being undefeated going in to that final match would be very slim.

If the players are divided into two groups of 4 to play round robin matches within their groups, and then the top 4 (top 2 in each group) advance to single elimination, they would have played four matches each to make it to the finals.

I guess there’s a remote chance it could been a double round robin format, with the final 4 advancing from the first robin to make it to a second round robin in which they all play each other. If that was the case, then Harmon and Borgov just happened to be the two undefeated players going in to that final match of the second round robin. That is the only possible scenario I can think of that winning 5 matches and losing none gets 2 players to the finals of an 8 player tournament.

It’s a minor detail that perhaps I’m the only one that discovered. If anyone here with chess tournament knowledge has any idea how that could possibly occur, I’d love to be informed? I just assume it’s an extremely minor error, which certainly does not detract from the brilliance of this movie.

 

[JohnnyP]

I played in high school, in the early '60's, played in a big tournament in Seattle, won a couple games. I bought Fred Reinfeld's book on Queen Pawn openings. I still have it somewhere. Then I went into the service, found pool and poker, not much chess. I came back to chess several years later and saw they had changed the notation. That really soured me, I still haven't tried to get into the notation, so I don't read chess columns, etc. I have not played much since then, though I have a nice board and set of pieces.