https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psoyeo3E2HE
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!
Now please go binge on Queen’s Gambit!
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Netflix’s Queen’s Gambit is based on the brilliant novel by Walter Tevis. I ran across his book years ago, sped through in a single night, and over the years, read it two more times. Tevis also wrote The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth. Unfortunately for all of us who love good stories, he died in 1984.
My dad started playing chess when he was eight. He and his brother Joe played throughout their lives. He knew the Sicilian move. When he lived with us in the late 1990s, he and Rob played chess nearly every night. They taught our daughter, Megan, how to play One of my favorite photos is of Rob and Megan playing chess in Costa Rica.
This series – just seven episodes – is so good, so much fun, so enthralling – because the woman who plays Beth, the chess prodigy, zipped herself up inside the skin of the character. You’re with her, all the way through her horrid childhood as an orphan, her addiction, her brilliance.
There are moments in this series when I felt like leaping to my feet and waving my arms and shouting, Five minutes, a break of five minutes… so I can slap together a snack and a few thoughts about what I’m watching.
When we lived in Venezuela, my dad taught me the rudimentaries of chess. It intrigued me but I wasn’t very good at it.
One of the scenes I love in Queen’s Gambit happens in the last episode, when Beth imagines a chessboard on the ceiling- which she has done numerous times before – and sees how she can beat the current world champion, a Russian.
In essence, it’s presented as a function of the left brain, the moves made by other chess masters throughout the ages. Yet, I think it’s a kind of precognition, a dive into the future that yields invaluable information.
And yes, she’s now the world champion in chess.
What’s next? Will there be a Season 2?
My father taught all five of us kids to play not only chess at a young age but Bridge, Hearts, Poker, Backgammon, Chinese checkers and I forget what else now. I loved the movie – not just the story but the photography was sensational. Beautiful. Stunning. I know that people who don’t know how to play chess still enjoyed the movie but if you have played against a good opponent and really try to win it takes enormous concentration and that adds to the understanding of the story. I loved that white queen outfit she wore at the end. Did you notice that when Kamala Harris accepted the Vice Presidency she was wearing all white. Did she do that on purpose with the white queen in mind?
My dad taught us chess, too. He’d played since he was 8!I loved Kamala’s white outfit. Hadn’t thought of the white queen parallel, but hey, why not?
I loved the show! And I wish you and yours the happiest of Happy Thanksgiving!
The same to you!