The Queen's Gambit

Arts & Entertainment
1

The mini-series “The Queen’s Gambit” drops tomorrow on Netflix.

I read the Walter Travis novel 20 years ago and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I only have Hulu :worried:

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I will laugh if the only thing she plays in the series is E4/C5

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There a humans on earth who don’t pay Netflix $8/month?

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4

Pay for it? Nah. You use your ex’s password til it doesn’t work anymore.

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On ep 1 :+1::+1:

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8

What extra eye thing?

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I don’t see it. They look like normal eyes. You might as well complain about their pointy elbows.

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Don’t get him started on the elbows!!!

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12

I enjoyed the first episode. I got a bit of an off putting “magical negro” vibe from the Jolene character but looking forward to the rest of the season.

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The only eye thing I have seen with that actress is she seems to have anime eyes

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So this bothered me enough to start watching Queen’s Gambit and you are right, her eyes are wider set than usual, also imo, oddly shaped.

But I did remember that she grew up in Argentina before moving to London so, in addition to a British accent, she has an Argentine accent

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17

I saw it on one of my recommended lists, I’ll watch after I finish Queens Gambit.

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Queen’s Gambit is pretty good then? I’ll check it out I think. I was initially hesitant because I am suspicious of any show with extremely attractive people playing nerd-weirdos, but I should just go for it. Loved the book.

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I am only 3 episodes in, but I would say I enjoy it for its style and pacing, but so far I am finding it a little lacking in substance. To me, the portrayal of 1950s/1960s sexism seems to be played for dramatic effect, like OMG look how sexist people were in 1959! This doesn’t land for me in Trump World 2020 where it is blindingly obvious to anyone willing to open their eyes that women are still treated like shit. Its hard to take “yuck yuck girls can’t play chess!” seriously when women in Trump World need to have marches to remind people that powerful men are raping them all the time.

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21

Totally fair, it’s not like I hate the show, my mild criticisms are just that - mild.

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Quick thought on Queen’s Gambit. I’m enjoying it, B+ at worst but more like a solid A- to me (3 episodes in), but I’m a chess nerd, I’m curious what non chess nerds are getting out of it.

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Yeah, so far the chess content has been pretty faithful to my eye, then again I only play online and can’t necessarily vouch for how the live tournament stuff plays out.

I’ll put this in spoilers, the one thing I don’t understand is how are the tranquilizers and booze making her visualize the board better, it should be speed or whatever that gives her the chess insights?

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She’s being a delusional addict about it I’m guessing.

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Finished Queen’s Gambit and a solid B+ show. I was actually surprised it was an entirely fictional account. Netflix is going out of it’s way greenlighting a woman who plays chess novel. In any case, it was refreshing in that there was no grand overarching theme and no grand ‘chess as a metaphor’ trope, just a story that involved chess

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28

Yeah, shame there hasn’t been an attractive chess prodigy come out of Lexington. We do randomly have a Russian Grandmaster living in Lexington though. Story is he planned on moving to NYC, but got pickpocketed day 1.

Then he got another of his Russian Grandmaster friends to move here too. Ratings in KY go from 2626->2623->2200

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