What Is The Queen’s Gambit About?

The story is set in the 1950s and 1960s and follows the life of Beth Harmon, a chess orphan prodigy who struggles with drug addiction and the trauma of her childhood to become one of the best players in the world.

In Lexington, Kentucky, young Beth is orphaned at age nine when her brilliant but troubled mother crashes her car, apparently on purpose, and dies.

She gets sent to live at Methuen School, where children are made docile with a daily dose of powerful tranquillisers, pills that Beth soon learns to consume for recreational purposes.

Beth is discovered by the caretaker of the orphanage, Mr Shaibel, where she lives, after demonstrating exceptional chess skills. A few years later, Beth is adopted by Alma Wheatley and her husband from Lexington.

While adjusting to her new home, Beth enters a chess tournament and wins, despite having no previous competitive chess experience. A former chess player trains her, and as her career progresses, she faces increasingly challenging players, including national and international champions.

While struggling with emotional issues, drug problems and her growing alcohol dependency, Beth forms friendships with other chess players and, over time, becomes increasingly competitive, traveling the country and the world with her adoptive mother.

As she matures, her fixation with chess is rivalled only by her problems with drugs and alcohol, an addiction that could ruin her before she achieves her goal of beating her fiercest opponent, Russian champion Vasily Borgov.

Is The Queen’s Gambit Based On Real Life?

Although The Queen’s Gambit is a work of fiction based on the novel by Walter Tevis, some parts of the plot and characters were inspired by real events and people related to the world of chess.

For instance, the chess prodigy Beth Harmon’s character was partly inspired by real female players such as Judit Polgár, who became the youngest Grandmaster in chess history at the age of 15, and the women’s world champion Susan Polgar.

In addition, the scene of the chess tournament in Moscow in 1961, depicted in the show, was based on the 1962 Candidates Tournament in Curazao.

The series also explores the 1960s scenario in the United States and the Soviet Union in an accurate manner. Besides revealing the tensions between the two nations, especially in the chess field, The Queen’s Gambit also portrays competitions sharply.

However, it is important to emphasize that The Queen’s Gambit is a work of fiction, where the character played by Anya Taylor-Joy never existed, and the storyline is entirely imaginary.

What Awards Did The Queen’s Gambit Win?

The Queen’s Gambit received 18 nominations at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, including Best Limited Series.

The series won two Golden Globe Awards: Best Miniseries or Telefilm and Best Actress in a Miniseries or Telefilm for Taylor-Joy.

She also won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture/Miniseries and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film.