The Queen's Gambit on Netflix
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Anybody else watch it?
As a chess dork, I read the book when it was published back in the 1980's. Probably the best novel about chess, and definitely the best TV series/movie. They still play way too quickly, but it's good fun. Haven't watched it all yet.
There are some parallels with Bobby Fischer, although she's clearly not fully based on him.
I was only joking
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It was great to watch for a number of reasons, I highly recommend.
One think to note is how empowered the young women of this generation are portrayed versus the older women who all suffer from significant mental health issues due to the standard view of women for that generation.
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Professional chess has changed a lot, too. Back in Fischer's day, when this is set, it was a game primarily played by these ancient looking Soviet characters, with a few exceptions - massive eyebrows, scary demeanor. Even in the 1980's and 90's, when Karpov and Kasparov were playing, it really looked very Eastern European.
Now, all the top players have Twitter accounts, and are really products of the modern era. There's only a couple of Russians in the top 10, (and one of those has a freaking man-bun!). Magnus Carlsen, the top player in the world (and possibly ever) is still only 30, but became the highest ranked player at only 19 years of age.
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Professional chess has changed a lot, too. Back in Fischer's day, when this is set, it was a game primarily played by these ancient looking Soviet characters, with a few exceptions - massive eyebrows, scary demeanor. Even in the 1980's and 90's, when Karpov and Kasparov were playing, it really looked very Eastern European.
Now, all the top players have Twitter accounts, and are really products of the modern era. There's only a couple of Russians in the top 10, (and one of those has a freaking man-bun!). Magnus Carlsen, the top player in the world (and possibly ever) is still only 30, but became the highest ranked player at only 19 years of age.
@Doctor-Phibes Actually have his chess game. I think I mentioned this before, but it allows you to play him at different ages of his life. I think once he became about eight years old, I was never able to beat him!!
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Anybody else watch it?
As a chess dork, I read the book when it was published back in the 1980's. Probably the best novel about chess, and definitely the best TV series/movie. They still play way too quickly, but it's good fun. Haven't watched it all yet.
There are some parallels with Bobby Fischer, although she's clearly not fully based on him.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
Anybody else watch it?
It's SJW as fuck.
So is chess.
Are you honestly complaining about having strong female leads in TV shows?
I was only joking
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@Aqua-Letifer said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
Anybody else watch it?
It's SJW as fuck.
So is chess.
Are you honestly complaining about having strong female leads in TV shows?
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
@Aqua-Letifer said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
Anybody else watch it?
It's SJW as fuck.
So is chess.
Are you honestly complaining about having strong female leads in TV shows?
Look at me! I'm a female lead!
That became dated several decades ago.
For example, OK for Ms. Ferraro, not so much for Ms. Palin.
You have your own cigarette now baby!
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@Aqua-Letifer said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
Anybody else watch it?
It's SJW as fuck.
So is chess.
Are you honestly complaining about having strong female leads in TV shows?
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
Are you honestly complaining about having strong female leads in TV shows?
Yeah, Cathy Newman, that's obviously my beef.
The characters, broken down by gender:
WOMEN
Beth Harmon - protagonist. Notice that all her issues are imposed on her by the world. Society (in her case, male-dominated society) is to blame for most of her inner demons.
Alice Harmon - eh, she had schizophrenia but she meant well. You're supposed to feel sorry for her.
Miss Lonsdale - she means well.
Helen Deardorff - she means well.
Jolene - well she's female and black, so of course she's got to be the well-meaning street-wise badass.MEN
Harry Beltik - White guy. Dick.
The entire high school chess club - All white guys. All dicks.
Mr. Wheatley - White guy. Dick.
Matt and Mike - White guys. Dicks (initially).
Mr. Shaibel - White guy dick with a heart o' gold! (Due to the last name, maybe?)
Townes - White guy, not a dick. What gives? Ah, okay, ambiguous sexuality. Got it.
Mr. Fergusson - Black guy, so, less of a dick. Also let's have him quote some King Lear stuff to elevate black folks a little. (The actor's so good that this came off as normal, but in light of the rest of this list, I absolutely wonder about the writers' motivations. No other side character has an endearing quirk that implies they're more than they seem.)The show gets a bit of a pass because at times it does break the formula, and in all fairness I don't know how much of this is due to chess in the 60s, and how much is due to TV scriptwriting in 2020.
But I mean come on. By going by race and gender alone, you can guess whether a character's an ally or a stumbling block and be right far more often than not.
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You haven't spent much time at chess clubs, clearly
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You haven't spent much time at chess clubs, clearly
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
You haven't spent much time at chess clubs, clearly.
Entirely fair. But I have spent time around housewives, janitors, and businessmen who travel. In the real world, good people and bad people don't fit so nicely into racial boxes.
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My semi-joking point was that chess clubs are pretty much filled with white guys acting like dicks.
It's a funny game. When I played at the weekend tournaments there could be literally no females, out of a population of a couple of hundred players. That's changed a bit, now, but it's still a weird game.
The idea of a really strong female chess player was an odd one back in the early 80's when the book was written. People have said the character was based a little on Judit Polgar, but the book actually predates her.
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My semi-joking point was that chess clubs are pretty much filled with white guys acting like dicks.
It's a funny game. When I played at the weekend tournaments there could be literally no females, out of a population of a couple of hundred players. That's changed a bit, now, but it's still a weird game.
The idea of a really strong female chess player was an odd one back in the early 80's when the book was written. People have said the character was based a little on Judit Polgar, but the book actually predates her.
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
The idea of a really strong female chess player was an odd one back in the early 80's when the book was written. People have said the character was based a little on Judit Polgar, but the book actually predates her.
I'm absolutely down with the premise. As you said, it'd be a rarity. My issue's not with that but rather every other plot decision that seems to be motivated by politics more than good storytelling. Is the book like that, too? I'm guessing it isn't.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
The idea of a really strong female chess player was an odd one back in the early 80's when the book was written. People have said the character was based a little on Judit Polgar, but the book actually predates her.
I'm absolutely down with the premise. As you said, it'd be a rarity. My issue's not with that but rather every other plot decision that seems to be motivated by politics more than good storytelling. Is the book like that, too? I'm guessing it isn't.
@Aqua-Letifer said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
The idea of a really strong female chess player was an odd one back in the early 80's when the book was written. People have said the character was based a little on Judit Polgar, but the book actually predates her.
I'm absolutely down with the premise. As you said, it'd be a rarity. My issue's not with that but rather every other plot decision that seems to be motivated by politics more than good storytelling. Is the book like that, too? I'm guessing it isn't.
It's over 30 years since I read it, but I don't remember it being like that. What I remember about the book is that it stood out due to its more realistic depiction of chess than is common.
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That's what I heard, too. Put it on my list as I hadn't heard of it until after the show came out.
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Binged through it in the last few day.
It was great from a cinematographic standpoint. Costumes and sets were wonderful. I didn't find it all that preachy. I did find it, at times, a bit too soapy, starting with the premise: Orphaned girl whose mother kills herself grows up to be chess grandmaster after defeating multiple (male) opponents.
Fun to watch, but I won't revisit it.
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Binged through it in the last few day.
It was great from a cinematographic standpoint. Costumes and sets were wonderful. I didn't find it all that preachy. I did find it, at times, a bit too soapy, starting with the premise: Orphaned girl whose mother kills herself grows up to be chess grandmaster after defeating multiple (male) opponents.
Fun to watch, but I won't revisit it.
@george-k said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:
It was great from a cinematographic standpoint. Costumes and sets were wonderful. I didn't find it all that preachy. I did find it, at times, a bit too soapy, starting with the premise: Orphaned girl whose mother kills herself grows up to be chess grandmaster after defeating multiple (male) opponents.
Oddly enough, a number of real chess grandmasters had quite strange childhoods. Not quite growing up in an orphanage stuff, but both Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov had no father growing up, for different reasons, and both had mothers with exceptionally strong personalities.
Also, as you might expect, the number of top chess players with mental health conditions isn't exactly vanishingly small.
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Book was better. I saw it before the series.
