Queen's Gambit 2020

A wonderful miniseries. I had to binge watch the 7 hours in 2 sittings and see the first and last episode twice. The story was a home run for me also because I had been a chess fan as a kid and teenager. I learned chess as a small kid from a teenage girl (who happened to be the Swiss chess champion in the 70ies) during one of the many summer camps which my parents guided in Lausanne. I myself never became a good chess player. I remember in 1978 to read a book on the Goering gambit, a rather unusual opening. I had some success with it in a tournament [it took place in this beautiful castle at the Rhein in schaffhausen] but lost most other games (you do not always get the chance to play a specific gambit). Indeed, one has to know a lot of openings, learn, know and internalize a large library, in order to become a good chess player. The movie illustrates well that good chess players must have an excellent memory. They can replay the game blindly afterwards and even after years can replay major games. Beth in the movie plays many games in her head like at night. This requires to keep lots of information accessible visually. Only with a huge internalized library of opening and end games, one is able to sture such information effectively and still have CPU time available for intuition and creativity. The same is true in math. The movie is perfectly crafted. It is professional done in all the details, especially the chess parts, the recreation of the sixties down to the clothes, cars. The colors in the shots are carefully done, similarly as in Amelie. The openings, the games, the books discussed are all realistic. Here is some chess part in the pilot episode:

MOV, Ogg Webm. IMDb link

MOV, Ogg Webm. IMDb link

The thesis of the mother of Beth:
A short math scene in the second episode
A funny math board with a funny looking multiplication
The ending after the charming ``Lets play!" (sygrajem) final shot in the 7th episode contains some nice geometric animations behind the credits: A chess youtube channel covers two of the games here and here.
Oliver Knill, Posted November 26, 2020,