I have always been fascinated with chess, backgammon, and other strategic board games. Not that I can play any, mind you. I am not a TV person. I prefer sitting peacefully with a good book to read, and I'd rather even listen to a book than do something else. But, as 2020 forced us to somehow stay put more times than we had planned, I started exploring some Netflix films and series. It was a pity I was paying a full-fledged membership for years and not even using it. And one day in October 2020, a suggestion caught my eye. Was it the title? The eyes of the main character? I couldn't really tell. I was reading about the frenzy ensuing after the release of the mini-series and how people started buying chess boards and mentally noted to check it out later. That's how the Queen's Gambit ended on my Netflix list. I wondered first, what does that title mean? I quickly found out it was a chess move, which tickled my curiosity. Then people I know started recommending the flick. So by the third week of December, amidst all the holiday rush and busyness, watching Beth Harmon, the orphan main protagonist, visualize chess games and drifting into pills and later alcohol addictions, was the perfect mental getaway for me. It is indeed captivating how a young child understood the basic chess moves from mere observation and how acute spatial imagination helped her imagine the games and their outcome. Beth is fast. Damn fast. She envisions the moves spatially and it's pretty amazing. She is very focused on her subject of interest, the chess game, and can be oblivious to details outside of that space. Like many introverted thinkers, she seems detached from her feelings, which is not quite correct. She just doesn't know how to deal with them or express them. The poignant scene when she visits Mr. Shaibel's spot in the basement after he passes away and finds the picture that was taken of them together is emotionally intense. It displays a more humane side of our star and this probably will help her win your heart too. The 7 episodes are between 45 min and an hour each, which makes this show a good view for people who do not like endless series and hate to wait for yet another season to find out how the plot will be unfolding.
