Dig Out INYIM Media Preferred Netflix Streaming Series “The Queen’s Gambit”. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy!
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“Chess is not the sexiest of subjects. With a reputation as a staid, even
nerdish pastime, it’s often seen as the preserve of bookish boys and old
men.But thanks to a mesmerising performance by British actress Anya Taylor-Joy,
and a riveting book by American author Walter Tevis, the chess drama The
Queen’s Gambit has become the surprise boxset binge of the second lockdown.Taylor-Joy, 24, plays Beth Harmon, a chess prodigy and orphan from Kentucky whose genius is never in doubt, but whose drug and drink addictions
mean disaster is constantly stalking her — both on and off the board.The seven-part series has gained fans among both chess professionals, for the
authenticity of the game strategies, and fashionistas for the stunning Sixties
clothes and interiors.So was there a real Beth Harmon? Who advised the makers on the games? And
where did they film the show that’s topping Netflix’s charts? ALISON BOSHOFF
has the story.Based on a 1983 book The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, the show tells the
story of Beth Harmon, who is brought to live at the Methuen Home for Girls
after her mother, a maths professor, kills herself.At the orphanage, the children are given tranquilliser pills, and Beth, aged
eight, becomes hooked on the drug.She also starts to play chess, taught by the janitor Mr Shaibel — working out
how the pieces move herself and visualising strategies on the ceiling while
others sleep.Based on a 1983 book The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, the show tells the
story of Beth Harmon, who is brought to live at the Methuen Home for Girls
after her mother, a maths professor, kills herself.At the orphanage, the children are given tranquilliser pills, and Beth, aged
eight, becomes hooked on the drug.She also starts to play chess, taught by the janitor Mr Shaibel — working out
how the pieces move herself and visualising strategies on the ceiling while
others sleep.Some plays were drawn from real games — the match in the finale of the drama
is based on a game between Ukrainian Vasyl Ivanchuk and American Patrick Wolff
at the Biel Interzonal chess tournament in Switzerland in 1993.However, that game ended in a draw, this one ends with a win (we won’t say
whose).There are also echoes of Bobby Fischer’s famous 1972 win against defending
Russian champion Boris Spassky — Spassky notably applauded his winning
opponent.
SO WHAT IS A QUEEN’S GAMBIT?
The Queen’s Gambit is one of the oldest known chess openings.
It was mentioned in the Göttingen manuscript of 1490 and was later analysed by
masters such as Gioachino Greco in the 17th century.It’s an opening move in which a pawn is sacrificed in order to gain control of
the centre of the board.In the show, Beth Harmon uses it in her final match against the Russian world
champion Vasily Borgov.KEEPING THE DRESS CODE IN CHECK
If the chess doesn’t blow you away, the clothes will!
Costume designer Gabriele Binder was influenced by designers such as Pierre
Cardin and Andres Courreges, and by actresses Jean Seberg and Edie Sedgwick.She often puts Taylor-Joy in black or white and checks. She tells Vogue: ‘I
always try to mirror what is happening inside a character with what they are
wearing on the outside, and the checks are something that I thought would be
immediately interesting to Anya’s character, as she would intuitively choose
to wear pieces that are connected to chess.’The checked coat she wears to leave the tournament in Moscow is a vintage
Courreges coat. Binder adds: ‘The dress Beth wears for the Paris tournament
was a favourite of mine. It’s almost like a Cardin dress and has a kind of
elegance that doesn’t exist any more.’Taylor-Joy wears a variety of bobbed ginger wigs. Daniel Parker, the hair and
make-up designer for The Queen’s Gambit, says his key muse was actress Natalie
Wood.‘You’re dealing with the time from the Forties all the way till the mid-late
Sixties, so it really is a period piece that spans several decades in its
look. There was a lot of research and a lot of hunting around to get the
look,’ he says.Make-up is true to the period with winged eyeliner, red lips and rosy cheeks.
Parker says: ‘The whole point about the character is that she is very feminine
and very glamorous.’CHIC RETREAT IN BERLIN
The series was mostly filmed in Berlin, with the orphanage for girls the
Schloss Schulzendorf outside Berlin. The grand hotel lobby in Cincinnati is
Berlin’s city hall. The gloriously Sixties interior of the Hotel Mariposa in
Las Vegas is the Palais am Funkturm building of the Messe Berlin, an
exhibition complex. The baroque interiors of the Paris hotel were filmed in
the Bode Museum. The exception was the Wheatley family home in Kentucky, which
was filmed in Ontario, Canada.AND THE REAL BETH HARMON?
Hungarian chess prodigy Judit Polgar may have been an inspiration for Beth
Harmon (right).A formidable player, described by British Grandmaster David Norwood as ‘a cute
little auburn haired monster who destroyed you’, she played competitively from
the age of six and was widely feared for her quick-fire tactical blitzes.Her father Laszlo trained Judit and her sisters in chess and they refused to
play in women-only tournaments.Obsessive about the game, Judit would practise for six hours a day. She first
defeated an International Master aged ten, and a grandmaster at age 11. She
became a grand-master at 15 after winning the Hungarian National Championship.In 1993, aged 22, she played an exhibition match against former World
Champion, Boris Spassky and won. She retired from top-level chess in 2014. She
also beat Garry Kasparov, who remarked ‘if to ‘play like a girl’ meant
anything in chess, it would mean relentless aggression’, judging by Polgar.
TORTURED AUTHOR’S INSPIRATION
The book was written by novelist Walter Tevis in 1983 — the year before he
died.He wrote six books. First came The Hustler in 1959 (later a film with Paul
Newman) and then The Man Who Fell To Earth in 1963 (later a film with David
Bowie).He then published nothing for almost 20 years, due to alcoholism.
Born in 1928, he spent some of his childhood in Lexington, Kentucky, hanging
out in pool halls and becoming hooked on chess.He said: ‘I think that most people take up the game of chess in a very serious
way if they have personality problems … I was afraid of girls, I was afraid
of a lot of things, and chess was a way of … getting rid of some of that
anxiety.’He worked as a teacher in Kentucky and tried to also earn money through
writing. The Hustler was a success, followed by The Man Who Fell To Earth, in
which the lonely, depressed alien becomes an alcoholic. He said it was a
‘disguised autobiography’ based on his own feelings of dislocation which he
had tried to ‘negate’ with booze.He got a job teaching creative writing, but drank, which prevented him from
writing himself.His wife said: ‘He could drink and teach, but he couldn’t drink and write. One
drink and the typewriter was completely out of the question.’Tevis moved to New York and gave up alcohol, his job, his friends and his
family in order to start writing again.First came Mockingbird (1980) and then The Steps Of The Sun (1983), The
Queen’s Gambit (also 1983) and finally The Color of Money (1984).Tevis based chess scenes in the Queen’s Gambit on his own experience as a
class-C player and his study of the game.
IS IT LOVE ACTUALLY FOR DASHING KNIGHT?
Two of Harmon’s romantic interests — and chess foes — are played by actors who
became famous as children. Thomas Brodie-Sangster was adorable Sam in Love
Actually.In The Queen’s Gambit he is Benny Watts, a dangerous-looking chess player who
favours a bare chest and Stetson. Harry Melling (right), the beastly Dudley
Dursley in the Harry Potter films, has a much more sympathetic part, as Harry
Beltik. Now 31, he plays one of Beth’s early ‘kills’ on the board, who goes on
to develop a life-long crush on her.She was the star of an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma which was released
this spring, but is certain to be catapulted on to the A-list by The Queen’s
Gambit.Anya Taylor-Joy’s intense, fawn-like gaze seems to carry the drama for the
entire seven-plus hours of running time.Director M Night Shyamalan who has worked with her previously says: ‘Her
visage is like a silent movie star’s from the Thirties. She is so atypical,
physically, and emotionally.'” – Dailynews.com
