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urbanascott 26-Oct-20, 22:23	Queens Gambit TV Series I just wanted to recommend a new TV miniseries on Netflix called “Queens Gambit,” which is based on the novel (with the same name). It is about a young female chess prodigy. There are some inaccuracies is the chess, and chess tournament etiquette, but it is still a very enjoyable TV series. It is not up there with “Searching for Bobby Fischer, “ or “Pawn Sacrifice,” but it is a very good TV series, especially if you are looking for an escape from all things political.
urbanascott 27-Oct-20, 00:35	It has 100% rating on Rotten Tomato’s and a 98% approval rating on Google. I am referring to the TV series, Queens Gambit, and not Joe Biden (in this particular instance.)😇
classica 27-Oct-20, 02:37	It was great! I wonder if we get a second season.
urbanascott 27-Oct-20, 02:39	Unfortunately it was just a one season mini-series with 7 episodes. I think they have enough good characters to create a 2nd season. Maybe if the ratings are good enough??
mistee 27-Oct-20, 04:10	Queen’s Gambit I just finished watching this series last night. It was amazing. We need more shows like this on TV. I really enjoyed it.
edwardphz99 28-Oct-20, 23:09	This weekend thanks for the information Possibly this weekend i will have sometime to view all three.
urbanascott 31-Oct-20, 12:29	Highest Rated TV Series on Netflix! I just read an article that indicated this was the highest rated series on Netflix for several days this week. Nice to see a pleasant series like this getting so many viewers.
mikemate 01-Nov-20, 21:18	My wife and I watched the first three episodes tonight. What a great series!
lord_shiva 03-Nov-20, 13:33	New York Times Article It isn't legal for the players to speak during tournament play, save for offering or accepting a draw. Aside from that, and the speed of tournament play (highly accelerated because actual hours aren't terribly riveting film making) they portrayed things pretty well, apparently. www.nytimes.com
urbanascott 03-Nov-20, 14:30	That's funny--The Washington Post ran another story about it today. As a former OTB player, I was struck by the fact that they weren't notating their moves. They always had the pad of paper and pencil next to each player. Sometimes she would write down the first move or two and then stop, sometimes her opponent would do it and she didn't, and sometimes neither player did. Anyhow, that is getting picky. It is a really good series and I highly recommend it, even to non-chess players.
classica 03-Nov-20, 15:00	Some tournaments let you talk. chess24.com
urbanascott 06-Nov-20, 20:44	A video on Beth Harmon's 5 best moves in Queen's Gambit! www.chess.com
edwardphz99 08-Nov-20, 22:16	I finally saw it I am up to the episode where her mother dies. This is a tough story with or without chess. But still uplifting for someone to make their path from an orphan's home, and have some fortunate help along the way. Regarding the writing of moves, I think it reflects a shortcoming or a device of movies/TV. They want to focus on the end result, condense the action. I have been to tournaments where both players are running out of time and they were allowed to make a checkmark instead of writing the move. I think another person or persons were writing, possible someone coaching the player.
perfect_spy 09-Nov-20, 06:02	It’s a great show. Not sure what they can do for another season as the story has been told.
mikemate 10-Nov-20, 12:55	Not everyone has watched the entire seven? episodes. I guess she dies in episode 6 and we have watched the first five.
classica 10-Nov-20, 13:03	I didn't see her die. I saw all seven.
perfect_spy 10-Nov-20, 13:04	Probably not a good idea to read a thread of a show if you haven’t watched it all yet.
joveyboy1 10-Nov-20, 23:22	I don't have Netflix so   But it does sound interesting, and there's no way I'll remember all that was discussed here, so if I ever do get Netflix, I'll try to remember to check it out
urbanascott 11-Nov-20, 01:16	Joveboy1! Hi a Joe, As a suggestion, sign-up for a free one-month trial subscription to Netflix and plan to binge watch as many series as you can in the month.
joveyboy1 13-Nov-20, 20:24	I'll have to figure out a good period of time, but yeah I'd be up for that
urbanascott 28-Nov-20, 15:07	Queen Gambit is the most watched Netflix Series Ever! Also, chess set sales up 1000%! Article below is from the Washington Post ‘The Queen’s Gambit,’ a period drama that erases sexism from 1960, is the best fantasy show of the year By Monica Hesse November 25, 2020 Over the weekend, a representative from Goliath Games went on NPR and announced that sales of chessboards were up one thousand percent from last holiday season. Some of the credit went to the pandemic and all of its forced family time. The rest was due to “The Queen’s Gambit.” Americans everywhere had flipped on Netflix, watched the seven-episode fictional transformation of a prickly orphan into an unstoppable grandmaster and decided, yes, it was finally time to learn to play chess. On Monday, Netflix announced that “Gambit” had become its most-watched limited series ever; 62 million accounts streamed the show in the 28 days after its release. With “Mad Men”-esque costumes (the show spans the 1950s and 1960s), Russian nemeses, a kicky soundtrack and a triumphant battle against addiction — protagonist Beth struggles with barbiturates and alcohol — this show has everything. Except one thing. And the thing that it lacks is what makes it truly escapist. “The Queen’s Gambit” has no women in peril, and no skeezy men. The female main character spends the show navigating a masculine subculture in a misogynistic era, frequently while drunk or high. As such, her encounters with men first seem — via camera work, ominous lighting and the fact that we’ve all seen television before — incredibly dangerous. Every episode brings at least one moment of Girl, watch out! But the danger never materializes; the trope is upended. Beth didn’t need to watch out for the men. The men, refreshingly, were looking out for her. Young Beth meets an odd, reclusive janitor in her orphanage’s basement. An experienced viewer wonders if he’s about to molest her; instead he introduces her to the chessboard. Teenage Beth follows a competitor she barely knows to his sketchy subterranean apartment and finds that the spare bed he’d promised her doesn’t seem to exist. Girl, watch out — but wait! He just needs to drag the air mattress out of storage. A former foe, whom she’d publicly humiliated by taking his title in her first-ever tournament, shows up at her door in the dark, but he only wants to loan her some strategy books. A montage of Beth winning floats across the screen. Nobody calls her the b-word, nobody huffs away to nurse wounded pride. A female reporter writes a profile that Beth hates because it’s too girly, but her path to domination is otherwise uninterrupted by sexism. When she’s lured out of bed at a sleepaway tournament one night, it’s only because some fellas want a few rounds of speed chess. She mentions she needs coffee; a less talented young man is sent to fetch some for her. Much of this is almost certainly ahistorical. “They were too nice to her,” Judit Polgar, the only female chess player to have been ranked in the top 10, told the New York Times of the show. Polgar — who became a grandmaster at age 15 in 1991, 30 years after Beth’s fictional rise — says her male competitors would disparage or mock her. Even now, women are allowed to compete in tournaments with men, but there are so few high-ranking women in the game that they still hold their own tournaments, in the hopes that women-only spaces will draw in more female players. “The Queen’s Gambit” is based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis. It’s possible the gender of the author has something to do with Beth’s uncluttered path to success. Not having experienced sexism himself, he might not have thought to subject his heroine to it. He wouldn’t have realized it would be integral to her daily life. He wouldn’t know that women do not blithely follow strange men into basements. He writes Beth as a classic Greek hero, which is to say, he writes her like a man: Her biggest obstacles are her inherent flaws. And when she drinks too much, her punishment is a hangover, not an unwanted pregnancy. Regardless of whether Beth’s sexism-less ascent was born of intention or oblivion, it was jarring and thrilling to watch a woman move through her world and just be so . . . safe. I can’t help but think of all the other esteemed period pieces, with all their other period sexism. Joan in “Mad Men” endured harassment every day. And while that was probably true to life, it still meant that we viewers had to watch a woman’s humiliation repeatedly played out as plot. “Game of Thrones,” set in an alternate Medieval English reality, relied heavily on rape and then argued that because rape was a part of historical violence, it was accurate to depict it on the show. Which, fine. But you would think that a show that featured dragons and ice-walking zombies might also be able to envision a world in which sexual violence isn’t a thing. This is the fantastical world “The Queen’s Gambit” gives us. And it’s at least some of why — even if viewers haven’t put their fingers on it — the show is so dang satisfying. Partly because it depicts a brilliant woman. And partly because it depicts decent men. Beth is able to get where she does because they see her as an equal instead of as a threat. It’s revisionist history. It would be a wonderful future.
baddeeds 01-Dec-20, 07:21	I recently heard about this movie, Scott. And, I think they use another theme, also being, "My brilliant brain" since she also plays games away from the board with her partner. With that, I also heard that this movie is actually motivating people to learn the game. As people are now buying these chess boards for the holidays. My jaw dropped when I heard this. And, I hope that the movie actually shows some of the games as it would be very interesting to see.
royal_knight1 04-Dec-20, 00:10	Queens Gambit My wife and i watched the series in one night a good binge.
baddeeds 29-Dec-20, 09:35	I'm not sure why this happened, but I started thinking about this at 5 am after waking up from a sleep cycle. Luckily, I found a loop hole around it after 10 minutes and fell back asleep. But, something about it just got in my head. And, I'm pretty sure it was the later phase where they play off of the chess board. At the start of me getting it out of my head, I think about a game, similar to one I have in progress. And, it's very close, but black makes a small miscalculation which allows a back rank checkmate from white. Right after this, I fall back asleep again. I don't like the fact that this happened at all. But, the only good thing about this is that it prevented me from making a terrible blunder in one of my current team games. In any case, this makes it so that I'll watch it, at some point, if it's also available on DVD.
classica 29-Dec-20, 10:26	www.youtube.com one of the games
urbanascott 18-Jan-21, 18:59	Another chess movie recommendation... If you are looking for another chess movie I strongly recommend "Critical Thinking," starring John Leguizamo. It is about a high school chess team in Florida. I watched it on the Starz network on demand, but it may be on other platforms as well. My wife and I really enjoyed the film.
mikemate 18-Jan-21, 20:10	Scott, do you know that I coached chess for 30 years, 26 different schools? I have been to many National Elementary school tournaments. Every few years they have Super Nations (all grades). The year of this story was 1998, which was one of my personal best years. Who was the coach? It wouldn't be Sunil Weeramantry would it?
urbanascott 18-Jan-21, 20:46	The coach was Mario Martinez. The team won state (Florida) and nationals.
mikemate 18-Jan-21, 21:21	I should clarify, most of those 30 years I taught multiple schools per week. The most was eight schools per week and that included two States (Ohio and Indiana). Oh the memories.
mikemate 18-Jan-21, 21:26	High School Nationals is no joke. They include the top four scores from a team per section. Is this movie on Netflix?
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