The “Queens Gambit” is the best thing on Netflix right now

Lift Run Play Chess wrote:

historically inaccurate wrote:

I've got to point out that the reigning Women's World Chess Champion, Ju Wenjun, is ranked only number 404 in the world overall.

The show is wildly unrealistic.

You're not wrong, but the best woman (Yifan Hou) doesn't play woman-only events. She is a top 100 player.

The best woman ever was Judith Polgar who became a grandmaster at 15 and peaked at 8th in the world. The Polgar sisters are a very interesting study for the whole nature vs nature debate as they were raised explicitly to become great chess players and they all succeeded to an extent.

Judith Polgar also spanked Kasparov when he was world #1 -- so there's historical precedent for just about everything in the show.

Just rewatching The Wire, and I had completely forgotten the chess scene, where Bodie and Wallace are playing checkers with chess pieces, and D'Angelo gives them hell then goes on to explain the game. "This is the king-pin... This is the queen, she ain't no b!tch..." :-)

Lift Run Play Chess wrote:

You're right, the staring isn't realistic either. Neither is the blitzing of moves so quickly in games where there are 2 hours per side.

I rarely ever see issues with obnoxious players at my level, but I've definitely seen it from players way, way worse who greatly overestimate themselves. There is a massive gulf from a casual player to a tournament player and then an even larger gulf from regular tournament player to chess master.

Yes good points.

And the speed moves in 2 hour tournament games were not realistic.

Dan Kahneman wrote:

Yes good points.

And the speed moves in 2 hour tournament games were not realistic.

What are you suggesting as an improvement in realism for what are typically 5 hour games?

Lift Run Play Chess wrote:

NameStolenAgain wrote:

Keep in mind the majority of the actors didn't know how players holds pieces when moving, or taking other pieces

So, I'm actually a chess National Master (top 200 or so in the US) and this was my only critique of the show. I really enjoyed it overall including the realism with actual game play that made some sense and historical chess references.

But the piece moving still got me a bit because it was really clear they were actors. Some of the movements were kinda unnatural and not what you would see out of someone experienced with tournament experience. Still a very minor critique and not likely something non-chess players would notice.

In the interviews with Pandolfini he says he preferred to leave some of these unusual idiosyncrasies alone, in particular how she captured the pieces. All chess players can tell some things were off, but I can appreciate how much work went into it and it's still believable. In a way it almost adds charm to it

historically inaccurate wrote:

I've got to point out that the reigning Women's World Chess Champion, Ju Wenjun, is ranked only number 404 in the world overall.

The show is wildly unrealistic.

The fact you mention an unimportant personality in the history of women's chess as a reference shows you are the one unfamiliar with chess history

It isn't terrible, but I didn't love it. The adoptive mother was too terrible. And how did she show up in top poker form for the Moscow tourney after a long period of doing little but drinking? A darker ending would have been more in line with the rest of the series.

*top chess form

I don't quite understand the rave reviews but it was a well-acted, fun show and I would perhaps watch it again many years in the future. Getting high and drunk and playing ceiling chess all night looks like a good time. I was inspired to play several games online over the last few days, but I eventually remembered that chess is less enjoyable if you're an idiot.

Got a kick out of the child actors who reappeared in this one, too. The oldest child from "The Witch" was the lead, Dudley Dursley was the Kentucky Chess Champ, and they used a time machine to bring the Love Actually kid back from the early 00s and slapped a fake moustache on him.

Don't remember where the quote or review was from but they called the Queens Gambit, "the sexiest series with little to no sex".

*sexyist

I just finished the queen's gambit - it was an incredible series. I wish that I had gotten into chess when I was younger, I didn't realize how studied (and named) were the various openings.

A serious question - can women play against men in international chess? If not is there a reason why this is so other than tradition?

we're all pawns wrote:

Everyone told me how great this series was so I waded in. I'm through four episodes and I'm still "meh" about it.

Finished it. Still "meh". It was okay, I was interested enough to finish it, but I still don't get the enthusiasm for it.

The Gallant Pig Man wrote:

....they used a time machine to bring the Love Actually kid back from the early 00s and slapped a fake moustache on him.

Haha yes, this was very distracting for me. Then I googled him and he's 30?!

+1

we're all pawns wrote:

we're all pawns wrote:

Everyone told me how great this series was so I waded in. I'm through four episodes and I'm still "meh" about it.

Finished it. Still "meh". It was okay, I was interested enough to finish it, but I still don't get the enthusiasm for it.

Well, I got though it in a week, which is fast for me.

I'm glad I came across this thread.

It was a great show, to me.

gilt wrote:

A serious question - can women play against men in international chess? If not is there a reason why this is so other than tradition?

They can and have played against men. J. Polgar was top-10 in the world rankings IIRC.

The reason they don't do it more often is that they're rarely good enough to qualify for the biggest tournaments. This may partly be cultural (fewer females encouraged to play), and partly genetic (females exhibit a smaller standard deviation in the distribution of intelligence than males do).

qey wrote:

It's very hard to make claims about innate gender-differentiated ability when the number of women that play chess, especially in the chess powerhouse countries (former Eastern Bloc, India, Iran, etc.) is drastically fewer for cultural reasons.

gilt wrote:

A serious question - can women play against men in international chess? If not is there a reason why this is so other than tradition?

They can and have played against men. J. Polgar was top-10 in the world rankings IIRC.

The reason they don't do it more often is that they're rarely good enough to qualify for the biggest tournaments. This may partly be cultural (fewer females encouraged to play), and partly genetic (females exhibit a smaller standard deviation in the distribution of intelligence than males do).

LRC quote function ****s me again:

It's very hard to make claims about innate gender-differentiated ability when the number of women that play chess, especially in the chess powerhouse countries (former Eastern Bloc, India, Iran, etc.) is drastically fewer for cultural reasons.