Elizabeth "Beth" Harmon is an orphan at Methuen Orphanage.
As a child, Beth is rather peculiar: quiet, stoic, and curious yet terribly smart for a nine-year-old. Mr. Shaibel, the janitor, noticed it first after he taught the young girl the game of chess. It turns out that Beth is a prodigy in chess. So to test this, he invited a local school teacher to have Beth simultaneously play 12 chess players. She brutally defeated all of them in just an hour.
Chess around the 1960s is considered a man's game. So for a woman, like Beth, to engrave her name as a grandmaster, she must topple her male opponents. Harry Beltik, Benny Watts, D.L. Townes, and Vasily Borgov prove to be worthy adversaries to Beth. Beltik and Watts are champions in their own leagues. Townes is a good chess player and her secret crush. Borgov, on the other hand, is a Russian world champion and the only person she fears. Lucky for her, she got a few people by her side like Jolene, a fellow orphan at Methuen, and Alma, her adoptive mother.
Her brilliance in chess is not only because she is smart and observative. Early in her life, she develops an addiction to a little green pill that makes her hallucinate chess. Her addiction to these pills eventually drives her to madness. A madness that will affect her journey to be the best.
“The Queen’s Gambit” is a famous chess opening used by many grandmasters. They use the move to control the center position, a strategic place on the chessboard that gives the player more authority over the game. Basically, controlling it forces the opponent to retreat their pieces and play defense. Hence, “The Queen’s Gambit” is a fitting title for a drama about a woman asserting her dominance of a game previously ruled by men.
The film is precise in its position on the assumption that women are inferior to men. Beth proves that women are smart, strong, and capable as much as, if not more than, their male counterparts. People are, obviously, interested in this fact. But this quickly becomes a distraction for Beth. The truth is she plays brilliant chess, yet all people can talk about is her sex.
Furthermore, the film explores other topics such as drug addiction, alcoholism, individualism, insanity, and depression. It's a complex character study of a misguided prodigy and a woman’s capability, but with the tension focused on the 64 squares of a chessboard.
“The Queens Gambit” is a timely story of women’s triumph and behind its story is author Walter Tevis who wrote the novel back in 1983, and the Academy Award nominee Scott Frank, who translated it into a miniseries. It stars Marielle Heller as Alma Wheatley; Bill Camp as Mr. Shaibel; Marcin Dorocinski as Vasily Borgov; Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Benny Watts; Moses Ingram as Jolene; Harry Melling as Harry Beltik and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as D.L. Townes.
Anya-Taylor Joy, who plays Beth Harmon, is a stand-out in the series. Beth is a complex character with so many emotional baggage to carry, but Joy makes it all simple, sexy, and compelling. Her natural allure and striking glare add layers to the character she is portraying. Arresting and ensnaring the audience into submission every time she appears on the screen. Call her a femme fatale of chess or an undisputed queen, Joy’s winner portrayal of Beth makes the viewers want more from her.
"The Queens Gambit" deserves the praise and attention it receives. It's exciting despite how peaceful a game of chess sound, look, and feel. It's exciting what more the creators of this miniseries can do and what more Anya-Taylor Joy can bring.
