Review: The Queen's Gambit

I don't play chess. I haven't in years. I haven't since the fifth grade, when I joined and briefly participated in a school chess club.

A lot of boys did that in 1973. Nearly all, I dare say, wanted to emulate Bobby Fischer, the 29-year-old American wunderkind who defeated the Russian Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Chess Championship.

I say boys because chess clubs and organizations in those days were mostly male domains. Even now, women make up less than fifteen percent of the members in the U.S. Chess Federation -- an all-time high.

So I was delighted to see Netflix shake things up with The Queen's Gambit, a riveting story about a female chess prodigy. Set mostly in the 1960s, the miniseries follows Kentucky orphan Beth Harmon as she rises from obscurity to international stardom.

In the series, Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, overcomes personal tragedies, crushing sexism, and drug addiction as she weaves her way through the intriguing and competitive world of professional chess.

From the first episode to the last, I found it impossible not to root for Harmon as she bounced from one trial to another. Taylor-Joy portrays a young woman who fears nothing, it seems, except Vasily Borgov, the reigning world champion, whom she plays twice in the story.

Marielle Heller, who plays Harmon's adoptive mother, also shines in the series, based on Walter Tevis's 1983 novel. So do three young men, former chess adversaries, who become the prodigy's biggest supporters as the tale races toward a satisfying conclusion. All lend weight and nuance to a "sports story" that could easily stand on its own.

I highly recommend the seven-part series. For viewers looking for a rags-to-riches story, particularly with a strong, flawed female lead, The Queen's Gambit is hard to beat. Rating: 5/5.