Amazed to hear they are finally making Walter Tevis' novel "The Queen's Gambit" into a netflix 6 episode series. Without a doubt my favorite chess fiction book.

A film adaptation of “The Queen’s Gambit” was in the works in 2007, with Heath Ledger set to make his directorial debut and Ellen Page in line to star. However, the project was shelved after Ledger’s death in January, 2008.

RIP Heath Ledger

Punker, I'm guessing you highly recommend reading the book before seeing the upcoming Netflix series?

Yeah, I was wondering the same question...haven't read that book or really any chess fiction books. I really ought to though, I'd probably love 'em.

I do wonder if it would give any tangible insight into the psychology of competition, and would possibly help someone improve their results and/or improve their coaching.

With that being wondered, the reviews on Amazon praise it highly. 4.4/5.0 stars with 63% 5 stars.

I wouldn't read it for the chess or with the expectation that it will improve your chess in any way. The main character is a mega prodigy; it just sort of highlights how despite her natural talents, her situation in life nearly led it to go unknown, and even once discovered, it was a long road to realizing her potential. Kind of hard to say whether you should read the book to enjoy the series, but I loved the book so I recommend reading it anyways.

Ellen Page would have made an amazing lead, she's exactly how I picture the main character. Don't know this new actress.

tbh, I think I'd prefer to watch a series on the life of Capa if we're going to have mega prodigy's onscreen


would put a little money into the Cuban enconomy too, which would be a Good Thing^(tm)

tchaz always thinking of the less fortunate.

Just do a series where every season is a new world champ. Ez game

Damn, I love this book. Looking forward to this.

Release date Oct 23. Trailer:

I will be watching that!

Out today. Will be blowing through it asap.

I read that book back when it first came out. I’ll start watching the series tonight.

Finished the whole series.

A few minor chess quibbles (they don't start and finish every game with a handshake, for example, and there's a lot more talking to your opponent than I ever remember during games, but will grant them their cinematic licence).

The series really needed to be several more episodes long; it does a great job showing her personal growth as a person but doesn't quite tie it in as well as the novel does in terms of her chess growth. I think they made a mistake not using her as a narrator; she's very introspective and much of the book is her talking about what she's thinking and feeling during games, and they don't really get that across. A few times they use some sort of chess radio announcer to try to describe it, but it's not done well.

Still, to me this is like the Lord of the Rings movies. It's so bizarre and enjoyable to see scenes you've read and visualized so many times play out on screen that I couldn't help but like it.

she's just a female fischer, except instead of crazy conspiracy theories about jews she has booze

I wish they showed the games better.

agadmator's videos are usually good.

Elizabeth Harmon vs. Vasily Borgov

i liked it.
it was a bit dark and depressing, but it's rare to see a decent show (with 7 1-hour long episodes) on chess.

This was good content.

Finished the show. Very enjoyable. The background music , graphics, acting really made a chess movie exciting. I'm old enough to have followed chess during the show's era. The show seemed to represent the era pretty well. I owned most of the those chess books in the show and gave mine away to a local chess kids club a couple of decades ago. Mostly play poker.

They kind of skipped over the Vietnam war and the protest movement of the times. Most guys during the early 1960s were constantly worried about being drafted into the war.

Through the three episodes I've watched so far, I've been impressed by the top-notch storytelling and the acting by the lead character. Purely as a drama presentation, I think it's great.

But I agree with what others have said here that the weakness seems to be in the actual chess shown. The angle of the camera makes it hard to see what's going on, and I too wish they would have used narration by the lead about what she's thinking during the games.

On the other hand, the series is made for a more broad audience than just us chess fans who want to analyze the games, so it's sort of understandable.

Elizabeth Harmon vs. Harry Beltik

I also found the New York Times original 1983 book review of The Queen's Gambit.


Books Of The Times

I love these videos. I enjoyed them so much that I’ve watched both of these several times. Thanks for posting the videos and the New York Times review.

I’ve also finished watching the entire Queen’s Gambit series on Netflix. It’s great!