Queen's Gambit
My wife binge watched it a few months ago and told me I would like it. I have tried to get back into Chess as I was an OK player many years ago. I signed up for an online chess thing and have been doing lessons and robot games. It is almost fun. Not what I want to talk about just preface that I do know the game.
Over the last week we watched "queen's gambit" together. I am amazed she watched so many episodes at once. She came to think it was one long movie. I had to quit every couple of hours. I enjoyed it as she expected. Funny is she knows how to play, but is not into the game.
There are a lot of chess players. The TV show obviously had good chess players advising them. The games look fairly real. When the board is visible I basically understand what is going on, who is winning and such.
But it is a TV show. It is a drama about a person dealing with hardship by being really good at just one thing. I don't know if there was any message or intent. The hero is a pretty girl who is probably a genius certainly a prodigy who is orphaned and became a substance abuser, but could still play chess to championship levels. Lots of problems to work out.
Chess has a hierarchy that is based on results of playing other players. Once you get really good you are a "master". If you are better than that you are a "grand master". The current world champion is a Dane who is rated around 2800 points. Mere masters are around 2100. I think my play is around 1200 based on the robots I play on Chess.com.
On the TV show they don't talk about that. They just show her winning tournaments and getting prize money. Eventually she is the US champion which would mean Grand Master level.
In real world level matches they play many games to decide a winner. Two players will have 14 games to amass the points needed to win the match. A win is 1 point, a draw is 1/2 point. First player to 7 wins the match. On Queens Gambit they never played that kind of match, but it is a TV show not a documentary. And a 14 game match would really drag on.
So in the end she beats the world champion Russian. Her life is validated I guess.
I did like the show.
