World chess boom thanks to the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit”, also with us

How wonderful! World chess boom thanks to the Netflix series, also with us

The chess series “The Queen’s Gambit” makes you happy. And finally it shows us how exciting chess is. The “Game of Thrones” on 64 courses is also ideal for running of the bulls.

Beth Harmon comes from the most inharmonious circumstances imaginable: father left, mother commits suicide, Beth walks into the house, but hey, the caretaker lives in the basement and he’s not a bit creepy and teaches her chess. Of course, Beth is a chess prodigy, and although she relies heavily on pills, she beats everyone, including the Russians, and this with the help of her resourceful and extremely smart chess friends (click here for comment of Baron Baroni).

Basically, the Netflix hit “Queen’s Gambit” is a cliche rise story. But played and staged in a dazzling way. And although it consists mainly of chess games, it is incredibly exciting. The chess and Russia experience comes from former world champion Garri Kasparov.

Kasparov was first offered the role of an almost unbeatable Russian, but then he read the script and preferred to become a script doctor. His fear that the chess community would make fun of “Queen’s Gambit” was too great: He showed Netflix how professional chess games work and the body language of the players seems authentic. And how do you really imagine the Russians and the KGB?

The result was “pleasantly professional”, confirms the Swiss Chess Federation (SSB) founded in 1889, which saw “Queen’s Gambit” as something natural and with great pleasure. Like half the world seems to have seen “Queen’s Gambit.” Interest in chess has broken all previous records since October. American online platforms report an increase in their players between 50 and 500 percent. The media is always unearthing new chess prodigies from remote parts of the world, headlines the “New York Times”: “How Queen’s Gambit Makes Women Play Chess.”

And how is it in Switzerland? The SSB informs us that the boom is “more than noticeable”, but mainly through the media. However, SSB hopes that the proportion of female players can be increased from 6.45 to 10 percent thanks to the Netflix series. A proportion of women that the Swiss army also fights for. However, they have been continuously promoting girls and women for years. And it becomes visible: a few days ago, “Glanz & Gloria” portrayed the best 21-year-old player Lena Georgescu from Bern, “Der Observer” documented the life of Aargau Gohar Tamrazyan’s 16-year-old high school student under Corona in the summer .

As early as 2019, says the SSB, Gorhan had “made a rival to Beth Harmon” by “banning the vast majority of young men altogether in the second row and sensationally becoming the first young woman to become a Swiss Underwater Champion. 16 ‘with the children’ “. Gohar received his first chess board when he was 5 years old, but he only used it as a toy. At the age of 8, she could already be found in tournaments and defeated men who were about eight times her age.

Chesspoint.ch, the largest supplier of figurines, boards and clocks, wrote us that the boom was absolutely and very tangible, that they were almost sold out, but they would receive another big delivery before Christmas. Chesspoint is particularly surprised by the unusually high demand for mechanical chess clocks: “This can only be traced back to series, because in recent years digital chess clocks have generally been bought. Only older people bought a mechanical one in the middle. “

Of course, the mechanical chess clock betrays the nostalgic layman. The gadget lover. Chess is aesthetic. Material and immaterial. After all, the boards and figures are not only available as graphically simple and captivating online versions, but physically in all possible (deluxe) configurations: made from precious woods, marble, metal, glass, and in their most formidable version. wicked, even mammoth ivory. It’s no wonder that a chess set is a fixture in the homes of the rich in movies.

Chess is like “Game of Thrones” in 64 fields. Archaic and aristocratic in his staff: In the first line, the peasants are fired if they do not achieve some of their agile hooks, behind them the jumpers wait for their horses and riders. They are flanked by the towers that assault in a straight line and all protect the king and queen. The queen is the most agile and therefore most dangerous figure, bishop and rook in one, while the king can only move in steps of one square or castling with the rooks.

Queens can be as cunning and powerful as Cersei or Daenerys. Even so, chess is a deeply military game. Which certainly contributes to the traditional and still unshakable superiority of men in the world of chess.

The rules are simple. The ways in which they become complete movements and games are not. Time is added as a means of pressure in the competition, the double stopwatch, whether analog or digital. That’s great. And it’s even better under competitive conditions: time pressure translates into a hellishly heightened perception of the opponent and his battle, the pleasure with which one decimates opposing figures is murderous.

Well, the players know it very well. It’s even more surprising that “Queen’s Gambit,” the retro series based on a century-old game, has been so successful. Besides the aesthetics and success story, clarity and strict adherence to the rules of the chess game are probably a reason for this. Because the series probably offers something of a little sense of security, especially in this damn confusing year where only the strictest rules pay off. Chess conveys order and beauty. No matter how much Beth Harmon got carried away, two things always save her: chess and her friends.

For Oliver Marti, managing director and press spokesman of the Swiss Chess Federation, it is important that the consumption of harmonic drugs is, of course, unthinkable today: “Our chess players are subject to the Swiss doping law (we are members of Swiss Olympic since 2000) “, he writes:” So we have controls there, unlike when the Netflix series is on. But the narcotics part is not entirely out of nowhere, former world champions Mikhail Tal and Alexander Alekhine were very addicted to alcohol. Tal is said to have tipped several bottles of wine per batch and then struck the new Zigi with a single match at first with the old piece. “

The series that led to the chess boom was shot largely in Germany. Beth’s orphanage is a castle in Brandenburg, the great tournament hotel in Mexico is actually Berlin’s Friedrichtstadtpalast, the Bode Museum featured Parisian interiors, and Moscow street scenes were filmed on Karl-Marx-Allee. Only some exterior shots are from Canada. As if Berlin and its surroundings were a chessboard in itself, in which an entire kingdom is joined in a series.

P.S. Speaking of the rich: you can also get a little rich with chess in Switzerland. If a young Swiss player achieves the international grandmaster title in his age category before his 20th birthday, he will receive one kilo of gold from the Swiss Youth Chess Foundation. If a Swiss woman achieves the title of grandmaster in a women’s competition, she will receive half a kilo. And if he won, like Gohar Tamrazyan or Beth Harmon, “with the boys”, which is possible, he would keep half a kilo. That would be a good 80,000 francs.

PPS The author of this article loved to play chess as a child, she came second in a school tournament and therefore was the best girl, this was probably one of the most beautiful days of her life, simply did not notice it and the game of chess never so much. possible career option considered.