THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT

If you haven't watched this film on Netflix, you've missed something important, especially during this time of isolation. This film is about the game of chess and what it takes to become the best player in the world.

Who would have thought chess, of all games, could rival the Superbowl for competitive tension, a game demanding intellectual strength, not physical.

I play chess, albeit poorly, but enough to appreciate the subtlety and intellectual acumen required to play a game in complete silence, a cerebral dance, with no physical contact or verbal communication. Chess is more than a game, it's a competition between two players competing with strategy, logic, and imagination. Chess is the ultimate mind-game, it stretches the will to win, it drives the combatants to the edge of their mental and emotional capacity. Chess is a medieval war with kings, queens, castles, and knights played on a checkered battlefield.

If you've never played chess, this film may initiate you into a community of players that play online, the combatants range from beginners to Grand Masters, the ultimate level of expertise, the Ph.D.'s of the game.

The protagonist in this film is a young woman named Beth Harmon, an orphan, with a troubled past and an opioid addiction. Beth is brilliant, she possesses a unique talent but her weakness for drugs and alcohol almost derails her ambition for becoming the best chess player in the world, a game dominated by Russian men until an American woman arrived in Moscow to play for the world title.

In chess, when you have your opponent in an untenable position, unable to make the next move, he knocks his king over and declares you the winner.

I had stored my board and pieces away in the attic after our last move but this film jump-started my interest and I'm now playing on-line and watching videos on opening moves, including the Queen's Gambit.

an opening in which a player makes a sacrifice, typically of a pawn, for the sake of some compensating advantage.

Chess will help you through this Pandemic, it will strengthen your memory and satisfy your competitive spirit.

Your Move?

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