10 Things To Know About Netflix Series The Queen's Gambit

The Queen’s Gambit, has become Netflix’s most watched scripted limited series after 62 million member accounts tuned in to the show in the first 28 days, according to the streamer. The series premiered on October 23.

Here are 10 things to know about The Queen's Gambit.

1. The Queen's Gambit is a show set in the 1950s and focussed on a period chess drama the protagonist of which is a woman. Fronted by Anya Taylor-Joy, the show follows Beth Harmon, a young orphan who reveals a prodigy-like talent for chess and starts an unlikely journey to stardom while grappling with addiction.
2. The limited series is based on a novel of the same name by Walter Tevis.
3. Scott Frank has written and directed the show. He has co-created the series with Allan Scott of Don’t Look Now fame.
4. The main cast of the series includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Moses Ingram, Harry Melling and Bill Camp.
5. The Queen's Gambit has found acclaim across the chess community, which has lauded the games in the show to be “well choreographed and realistic”. The community feels the show “conveys the emotion of chess really well”. The show is regarded as “one of the best shows of 2020” and a “surprise hit” of the season.
6. Although the series is fictional, chess expert Dylan Loeb McClain said that Beth Harmon's story is similar to that of famous male chess prodigy, Bobby Fischer.
7. The chess games which Harmon plays in the series are based on actual competitions that took place in Latvia and Paris.
8. Post the release of the series, The Queen’s Gambit novel is now on The New York Times bestseller list. In addition, Google search queries for chess have doubled and searches for ‘how to play chess’ have hit a nine-year peak.
9. Besides the series, its fashion is also captivating and received appreciation. Berlin-based costume designer Gabriele Binder is the mastermind behind Harmon’s looks. She recently told Vogue that her research for the character involved delving into the chess world, the work of 1960s designers like André Courrèges, and stars like Jean Seberg and Edie Sedgwick.
10. The series has received positive reviews from different sites. It has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 8.01/10. Metacritic gave the series an average score of 79 out of 100 based on 28 reviews. Rolling Stone gave it 3 out of 5 stars.