Over the last few weeks, the most famous series and highly rated by critics is the Netflix miniseries "Queen's Gambit", about the young chess player Beth Harmony, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. Its goal is to become the best of the best. The series is set in the 1960s and 1970s and perfectly reflects the atmosphere of those years in the United States. Both the decorations of the space and the outfits of the heroes perfectly fit into those times. However, the most important things in this series are chess and being the best in the royal game.

We meet the main character when she is a little girl and ends up in an orphanage. There she meets a wonderful man who agrees to give her chess lessons. It turns out that Beth has amazing talent and is getting better than her teacher very quickly. He sees chess patterns and moves and can effortlessly visualize the game on the chessboard.

“The chess production works perfectly well because one of the content consultants was Garri Kasparov himself, who is the 13th world champion. The lead role – Anya Taylor-Joy took special chess lessons from Bruce Pandolfini, which is by no means a rule for actors who play the game on the set, and in fact, usually do not distinguish between rook and runner. For the needs of the role, the actress also developed a kind of "finger choreography", creating a unique way of moving the figures on the chessboard. In addition, the whole story is extremely addictive and shows the price of being a genius and a woman who fights in the male world of chess at the same time,” Michał Kanarkiewicz, ambassador of the royal game and popularizer of chess in Poland, said.

He hopes that thanks to such productions in which the script is based on the game of chess, more and more people will be interested in this sport and will be willing to try learning chess themselves. 

“I would like chess games to become as popular as other sports tournaments in our country and in the world. In the past, chess was considered a typically male activity, and ’Queen's Gambit’ shows that women also play it well and very well! I heartily encourage you to take advantage of chess lessons, because they develop creativity and strategic thinking skills, and yet both of these skills are very much desired by employers,” Kanarkiewicz added.

(WBJ)