How To Make Chess "Cool"

Though I am usually more interested in exciting, fast-paced television and adverse to long, draining dramas, there is only so much pestering I can take from someone telling me to watch a show.

In this case, it was my dad. He doesn’t watch much TV, so I knew it had to be something good if he kept reminding me every day to “check out that chess show”. So, eventually, I did. And the “chess show” he was talking about is a limited series on Netflix called The Queen’s Gambit.

I’m not a chess girl, or a “sports” girl either. Competition is boring to me. Why willfully expose yourself to potential disappointment? Sure, success tastes sweeter when you have worked hard, but perhaps it is the Taurus in me that makes me so opposed to competitive activities. I get jealous when others are better than me. However, this trait made me relate all the more to Beth Harmon.

Beth is the protagonist of The Queen’s Gambit, and the seven-episode show follows her throughout the triumphs and losses of becoming a chess grandmaster. It follows a very uniform hero’s journey: she is orphaned at a young age, finds solace in chess, and begins competing professionally. Along the way she meets other interesting chess players, like Benny Watts (played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster in the first thing I’ve seen him in since The Maze Runner) and Harry Beltik (Harry Melling). Each person she encounters offers some kind of lesson for her about chess until she ultimately works her way up to playing against the 1960s baddies: the Russians.

Because of historical events I won’t dive into (partly because there is no way I could give anyone an accurate synopsis of the cold war), Russians are portrayed in a lot of competition dramas as the main "enemies". I think there is something about the culture in Russia that made them very worthy opponents at the time, and perhaps still today. Russian athletes are always considered some of the best in competitions like the Olympics, and many of the most famous ballet dancers are Russian. They don’t do things for fun in Russia - they do it to win.

Creators Scott Frank and Allan Scott set up a well-timed single season. No “part” of Beth’s life moved too slowly. She moved up as a competitor quickly and her character developed accordingly as life threw its twists and turns at her. Beth was a character to root for, and also one to yell at: I wanted to shout at her through the screen - “don’t take those pills! You’ll get addicted!” but alas, she never listened. However, the writers weren't liberal with these decisions; each of Beth’s “bad” choices had a reason or rhyme to it. She was a realistic character who had realistic reactions to the world around her depending on the events of her life. Of course I wanted to scream at her character for locking herself in her house and drinking day after day, but she had just lost the most important chess game of her life. I would be upset too.

It is certainly a daunting task to get an audience to like your protagonist within the first episode, but young actress Anya Taylor-Joy made Beth so damn likable. She was snarky and intelligent, she pissed off misogynists, she was badass and beautiful. Every action Beth took was on her own accord: every romantic relationship she entered, every bit of help she received, every mistake she made. She was wonderfully independent from the very first episode. Most media sees characters leaving the nest and struggling to become independent - The Queen’s Gambit sees Beth thrust out into the world, and we watch her learn to accept help from others.

She is relatable in many ways to any girl who has ever found herself in a competitive setting. Girls are meant to be agreeable and polite - not competitive and cutthroat. Beth is a fantastic character because she is not a caricature "feminist" in any way - she is quietly a liberating figure for competitive women while still staying within the realistic boundaries set by the time period's society. She struggles with a typically "manly" problem: her distaste for losing causes her to spiral into addiction. Women are typically meant to take defeat respectfully. Beth does not, because she doesn't need to. Every situation where a man or woman is "supposed" to react in some way is by virtue of a binary world. We don't live in a binary world - this is a societal myth. It is refreshing to have a show treat it as such. Beth's spiral, though typically "masculine", is not so - it is simply her spiral.

Not only were the characters and plot expertly crafted, but the small details made the show clean and exhilarating. The costume design by Gabriele Binder was fantastic. It perfectly portrayed Beth's journey from pathless orphan to sophisticated chess master. I applaud Steven Meizler's cinematography, which made the show effortlessly refined and brought to life the exciting 1960s setting.

I believe it was each of these details - and most notably Anya Tayor-Joy's fantastic performance - that made me find a show about chess, of all things, incredibly exciting. Just watching Beth eye the board in search of her next move was nail-biting. I have no idea how to play chess, but The Queen's Gambit made me want to learn.

Perhaps I'll take up chess. Or, at least, I'll stare at the board thoughtfully like Beth does.