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Greg Bruce goes in search of something interesting about chess.

A few weeks ago, like every other magazine writer in the world, I was tasked with finding a story to cash in on the massive success of The Queen's Gambit - the show that's made chess cool again, despite filling the majority of its running time with close-ups of its star resting her chin elegantly on her hands.

My big break arrived in the middle of the annual report by the president of the New Zealand Chess Federation, where I discovered the winner of this year's New Zealand Junior Open (for players up to 20 years old) was 10.

We all love a good child prodigy story and chess is full of them. Beth Harmon, the fictional central character in The Queen's Gambit is one and so are many of the game's leading real-life players. They arrive at the table barely tall enough to see the pieces, quickly begin humiliating experienced adults, are touted as the next big thing - and sometimes become it. Legendary one-time world champion and troubled genius Bobby Fischer was a child prodigy, so was current world champion Magnus Carlsen, so is Alireza Firouzja who, aged 16, beat Carlsen in a blitz tournament earlier this year and is now seen as one of his biggest rivals.

Increasingly, the modern game is a place for the young. Indian prodigy Vaibhav Suri, 23, who was once the world's highest-rated 12-year-old and who achieved grand master status at 15, was quoted recently as saying: "If you are not a [grand master] by 13, 14 or maybe slightly later, it will be quite difficult to have a chess career."

Nobody knows how many people play chess but estimates typically settle somewhere in the hundreds of millions. The leading chess website, chess.com, has 33 million members and, on the day of writing alone, the site claimed to have added 105,727 new members. Whatever the total number, only 1723 players are currently grandmasters and only one New Zealander has ever reached that level. Could 10-year-old New Zealand junior champion Isabelle Ning become the second?

The photographer and I met Ning and her coach Ewen Green on a Wednesday night, at the Auckland Chess Club in Mt Eden, where she has one of her two weekly lessons, the other being a weekly group lesson with Bulgarian grandmaster Dejan Bojkov.

I'm not sure why the photographer decided to play her. Ostensibly, it was to make the board look better for the photos but there are faster and less humiliating ways to do that.

He talked a good game. If confidence equalled success, he would have adjudged himself the winner after every move, of which there were not many.

"Check!" he said confidently, only a few moves in."Well, you're going to be checkmated soon," she replied.He moved again, poorly. She looked at the board closely. She said: "Hmmmm.""Pressure's on!" he said confidently and without evidence."It's not," she said. "I'm finding the quickest way to checkmate."She moved. He moved again. Almost before his hand left his piece, she said: "Yay! Checkmate!""Goodnight nurse," Green added.The photographer took a couple of seconds to figure out what had happened but quickly rallied. "That was the aim though," he said. "I wanted to lose as quickly as possible."

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Even in failure, he could see only success. Perception is everything, except when it comes to the scoreboard.

The chess community's fear of this article was palpable from my first contact with its administrators and seemed to revolve around a terror of chess players being depicted as mad, or as flawed geniuses, or both. The fact The Queen's Gambit portrayed its chess-prodigy protagonist as an addict seemed to work them into a particular frenzy. "Most chess players are perfectly ordinary people," one of them wrote, in reply to an accusation I hadn't made.

But if chess has an image problem, it's less to do with the media's depiction of flawed geniuses than the game's lack of them. By far the biggest chess celebrity of the past 50 years is Bobby Fischer, the archetypal flawed genius. Fischer died 12 years ago, having effectively quit top-level chess after his 1972 World Championship win against Boris Spassky ignited a worldwide surge of interest in the game. The only other time chess has attracted anything like global attention was during the politically loaded Cold War end-games of the 1980s between Russia's media-friendly radical reformist Garry Kasparov and his conservative compatriot Anatoly Karpov.

Today's world champion is bland, blond, practically invincible Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, 30, a child prodigy who won his first world title at 22 and is sufficiently conventionally attractive for a modelling contract but is otherwise as appealing as a game against an AI. The only vaguely interesting article I've been able to find on him is a Vice story headlined "Magnus Carlsen, World Chess Champion, Is Kind of a Dick".

A lack of flaws can itself be a flaw. It's all about perception.

Ning was precocious and cheeky but most of all she was happy. She stopped smiling only to laugh, which she did a lot, especially while playing. I watched her play two games - her evisceration of the photographer and another game against Green. Never had chess appeared so fun - vastly more appealing than it appears during the hours of dour pouting that make up The Queen's Gambit.

On her head, Ning was wearing a pair fluffy cat's ears. There are many photos of her online playing chess and holding prizes and awards and in every single one of them she's wearing the cat's ears. She started wearing them a year or so before she started playing chess and has never stopped. "I like cats," she says, "and I also like headbands." She's worn them in junior matches, senior matches, national championships, international championships and just for fun. She wore them, unbidden, to the interview for this story. She gave grandmaster Dejan Bojkov a pair last year and they had a photo taken together, in cat pose. In the final game of this year's New Zealand Open, she played 63-year-old New Zealand great, master Bob Smith. She wore the cat's ears, he wore reindeer antlers.

On chess.com her username is "Squishyminions". "I like Minions" she says, "and I like squishing my opponents." She describes a game from earlier this year, against a highly rated player several years her senior: "I went out and beat him up in a knight endgame," she says. "It wasn't that hard, but I liked the way that I slowly squished him I squishy minioned him."

She opened her game against Green with an aggressive variation on the queen's gambit.

"It was supposed to be a Nimzo Indian," she said later, "but I played D4, C4, aka semi-queen's gambit." She said: "That's Isabelle language."

From there, they got into a closed position, from which Ning emerged stronger and from there she began to dominate her coach, whose face showed an ever-increasing amount of mock-concern.

"I don't want to do this move," she said, eventually, "but I want to do it at the same time.""Sounds like life," Green said, "but go on."She made the move."Okay," he said, "so queen takes or pawn takes? What do you think?""Just do eeny meeny," she replied."Eeny meeny is not an acceptable method," he replied. "It's been tried many times and always fails. Pawn takes, please."He told her: "If you can't tell the difference between two moves, play one and assume you've played a good one, instead of sitting there going, 'Did I play the right one?' That's what the top players do and that's why they're top players."She replied: "And then they're like, 'Okay, sure, I just did it! Yay!"

It became increasingly likely she wouldn't lose but it wasn't clear she'd be able to find a way to win."I don't know what's going on in his mind," she said at one point."Not a lot," he replied."As I expected," she said.

She began learning chess in 2016, aged 6, when her parents bought her a compendium of board games from Whitcoulls. She asked to play with them but they didn't know how, so they arranged for her to join a weekly group lesson with 12 other beginners. Four months later, she was the joint winner of the Auckland under-8 girls' title.

In the four years since, she has accumulated a string of age-group titles and prizes, travelled to international age-group tournaments and beaten a string of players both much older and more experienced than her. Earlier this year, aged 11, she was selected to play as part of the New Zealand women's team for the subsequently cancelled Chess Olympiad in Russia.

She is a member of Auckland Chess Centre, one of the most powerful clubs in New Zealand chess, where she's one of three girls Green says have been "beating up on experienced adult players" in the recent club champs. Asked how the adults take it, he says: "Most of them take it okay. They've gotten used to it."

She is already a champion and has achieved far beyond her years but, as with all prodigies, the assumption is that there must be more. What's next? Will she fulfill her potential, whatever that means? And then what? The level of expectation moves in lockstep with the prodigiousness of one's achievements. In The Queen's Gambit, Beth Harmon goes from child genius to world-beater because anything less would be disappointment.

Perhaps the best recent example of our treatment of prodigies is Lydia Ko, who won far more tournaments, accolades and money before her 20th birthday than most professional golfers will win in their careers. Here are some headlines from the last two years: "How golfing prodigy Lydia Ko lost her way" (ESPN), "New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko's sad decline" (Sydney Morning Herald), "Petulant princess or misunderstood millionaire? The truth about what's wrong with Lydia Ko" (New Zealand Herald), "What is behind the decline and fall of former world golf No 1?" (Stuff). Ko is 23.

Green, 70, is a former New Zealand champion and a brilliant blindfolded player who once played 20 simultaneous games he never saw. He speaks six languages and reads three or four more. He exclusively coaches young people and he chooses them carefully. Many have gone on to become leading players. Puchen Wang was New Zealand junior champion at 11 and is now New Zealand's second-highest-rated player, behind only grandmaster Murray Chandler. Another Green protege, Bobby Cheng, finished second in the 2007 New Zealand Junior Open, aged 9, moved to Australia, won the world under-12 title, became a grandmaster and is now that country's second-ranked player.

Green has a list of criteria candidates must fulfill before he accepts them for coaching: a supportive family, talent, a good attitude, a willingness to learn, the dedication to work by themselves and a sense of humour. Ning, he says, has it all. Her potential, he says, is great.

"She's high up there," he says. "I've had a number of seriously talented kids and she's very close. She's near the top."

Asked if she might become a grandmaster, he says: "Oh, many, many, many, many try and some succeed. She is not incapable. But I'm not good enough to judge that sort of level. She certainly has the ability to go far in chess. Just how far, I'm not sure, because I haven't been there myself."

Ning's parents, when asked about their hopes for their daughter's chess career, answer simultaneously: "Nothing."

Her mother says: "She has an interest and passion for chess, so we just support her and see what happens."

In The Queen's Gambit, Beth Harmon learns to play by skipping school in favour of games against the janitor in the basement of the orphanage in which she lives. In bed at night, she practises in her head, visualising games on the roof in a tranquiliser-induced fug. We're not shown the amount of work she puts in, the implication being it's not the work that matters. That's part of the appeal - it looks like magic.

Ning has twice-weekly lessons, outside of which she practises by herself half an hour each weekday and a bit more on weekends. She also has weekly lessons in fencing, piano, art and ballet. She says she'd like to be world chess champion one day but she'd also like to invent helpful things - for example, a teleportation device that would eliminate the motion sickness she currently experiences travelling to chess tournaments.

Green says of her: "She's very self-aware without being self-conscious and genuinely capable of seeing others' points of view, as so many children are not."

It's hard to say how much of her success at chess is genius and how much is hard work. She says she can calculate about 10 moves ahead, if they're "forcing moves" - moves requiring a specific response from an opponent. Green says this is "far more than usual". In non-forcing situations, she says she might think ahead three or four moves, although each one of those moves involves multiple branches, thus making the calculation exponentially more complex. Green says grandmasters typically calculate only four or five moves ahead but the moves they consider are typically superior to everyone else's.

As their game drew on, Green said: "Do you want a draw?""No!" she replied. "You want a draw! I want to win. It's annoying, and I can't find a way to win. Ugh!""So what are you telling me?" he asked. "Are you telling me something?""Well," she said, "You're hoping I say, 'Would you like a draw?'" She looked hard at the board. She said: "Do you have the queen E8 defence? No, you don't have the queen E8 defence. Okay, so it's like a draw, right?"Are you offering me a draw?" he asked."No," she said, "I thought you were offering me a draw.""No," he said, "I'm not offering.""You're not offering," she said. "You're begging for a draw."

Eventually, they agreed on a draw. When asked about it afterwards, Green said: "I semi-begged."

Later, I asked Green how much he thought Ning needed to practise in order to fulfill her potential.He thought for a while, then said: "There is no real limit to practice." He paused, then he challenged the premise of the question, which was fair enough, because the question was flawed.He said: "It pays to have a life." I said: "To be better at chess? Or to be better at life?"He said: "Both."

The rest is here:
The Queen's Gambit and the next big thing in chess - New Zealand Herald

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By Tina Traster

Remember when your parents or grandparents had a game table or a parlor with a chess set or a backgammon table or a 2,000-piece puzzle?

The time machine has arrived. The COVID-19 pandemic has many families spending more time at home together, and that means more time to play and have fun together.

The toy category, struggling since the death of Toys R Us, has gotten a boost this year as desperate parents try to keep their kids entertained.

The holiday season Easter, Passover was the busiest season weve ever had, said Yaakov Miller, who owns Toyriffic in Pomona, which sells tactile toys such as puzzles, board games, educational and science kits. The most popular item was puzzles.

We are chasing extraordinary growth in demand, said Ynon Kreiz of Mattel.

Miller said the lockdown was a challenge. The state said liquor was an essential, but not toys. But the merchant, who does no business online, said he took orders by phone and delivered toys by car. Since reopening in July, business has leveled off though the toy seller said hes still fielding requests for games such as Ticket To Ride, Catan, CodeNames.

The pandemic has been challenging for a lot of industries. But the volatile effects of COVID-19 have not been felt equally across categories. It has been a terrible year for suit sellers like Tailored Brands and Brooks Brothers but a banner one for retailers of outdoor gear, bicycles, sweatpants, hammocks, and booze.

But toys have enjoyed a noticeable spike and analysts expect sales to be robust heading into the holiday season as families remain relatively homebound and many schools remain closed. Even macroeconomic gloom may not slow down growth in the category.

U.S. toy industry sales spiked 16 percent in the first half of 2020, according to the NPD Group. Toy makers say the pandemic has driven much of that demand. Parents with kids home from school, and without organized sports and activities on the weekends, have been desperate for ways to entertain them.

In the first half of 2020, puzzles led the way with 37 percent percent growth, followed by outdoor sports and toy products (up 27 percent), building sets (14 percent), arts and crafts (11 percent) and explorative toys (1 percent), according to NPD.

Among specific toy properties, Disneys Frozen toys were at the top, followed by Star Wars, Little Tikes, Barbie and Lego Star Wars. However, the continued closure of movie theaters could negatively impact movie-related toy brands this holiday season.

According to Coresight, trending toys include aspirational play toys, interactive nurturing toys, licensed entertainment character toys, online gaming and tie-ins, outdoor toys, retro toys and unboxing/surprise toys.

Games and puzzles have been hot commodities. They were in the toy industrys top three supercategory performers between January and September, according to market researcher NPD Group. Sales, at some $1.5 billion, were up 42 percent from the same period in 2019, NPD stated in a late-October report.

Over the last year, sales of chess sets in the United States rose by around 25 percent, only slightly faster than the toy industry overall, said Juli Lennett, a toy industry analyst with NPD, a market research company. Since mid-October, when The Queens Gambit premiered on Netflix, sales have grown 125 percent.

At Goliath Games, a toy company that sells several varieties of chess sets, sales are up more than 1,000 percent compared with this time last year, the companys director of marketing told NPD.

A spokeswoman for eBay said the company had recorded a 215 percent increase in sales of chess sets and accessories since the debut of the show in October.

In-person card gaming took a hiatus at ToyWiz in Nanuet but Comic Book Manager Carl Etter says sales are robust, particularly action figures, comic books, and miniature gaming.

Card gaming was our bread-and-butter, said Etter. It drives our sales because its the way we build our community. Due to restrictions, were not able to do tournaments but it hasnt stopped people from collecting. Sales have been strong.

At a time when other retailers are struggling, or have not reopened in the Palisades Center, at least one toy store and one gaming store have opened. Lollipop Toys, an independent toy store specializing in toys for children from newborn to 10, opened its newest location on Level One next to 7-Eleven.

Good Game Lounge, a location for gaming, streaming, tournaments as well as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, opened its first location at the mall. The 8,500-square-foot lounge is located on Level One next to Sephora. Good Game Lounge was founded by entrepreneur Malik Adjoyi, a Rockland County resident.

Mattel reports Barbie sales increased 29-percent during third quarter, leading to a 10-percent revenue growth for the entire company. Its largest quarterly increase in two decades.

Meantime, pandemic demand had toy companies scrambling, judging from the comments on recent third-quarter conference calls from the CEOs of Mattel and Hasbro, the two big U.S. toy players. And the scrambling appears to be continuing.

We are chasing extraordinary growth in demand, said Ynon Kreiz of Mattel, famous for its Barbie franchise but also ranked No. 1 in games and puzzles in the U.S. by NPD for the card game Uno.

View original post here:
Local Toy Stores Thrive Amid Pandemic's Return To Board Games, Chess And Card Collecting - Rockland County Business Journal

At 9 pm EST tonight, Ethereum co-founder and figurehead Vitalik Buterin will face off against chess streamer National Canadian Team player Alexandra Botez in an match event live-streamed on Twitch.

The event came about following a series of matches and conversations held by members of the Ethereum-focused Bankless podcast and newsletter. After Vitalik participated in a handful of matches, Botez threw down the gauntlet:

Fans of the chess personality have warned Vitalik to watch out for her namesake Botez Gambit a playful term for when she accidentally loses her queen. Jokes aside, the Canadian sports some serious accolades: she currently holds the title of Woman FIDE Master, and is a five time Canadian National Girls Champion.

Not all are counting out the 26 year-old Ethereum co-founder, however. Some have speculated that between pondering Derek Parfit and solving scalability, Vitalik might be hiding some genuine chess chops:

Additionally, aside from helping build the worlds largest smart contract platform, Vitalik might be most notable as the inventor of a chess variant. In 2019 he debuted 1.58 dimensional chess, played on a pyramidal plane.

And what would an Ethereum mindsport prizefight be without on-chain prediction markets where viewers could bet on the outcome? Gamified prediction market Yieldwars is offering a market for the match, with winner-take-all options for either side, while Omen Prediction Markets is offering weighted payouts.

So far, the market believes that Vitalik is going to have a rough evening. Pitched as King versus Queen, the Yieldwars market currently has totaled only $500 in bets, with bettors healthily favoring Botez. Omen, meanwhile, has attracted over $650 in bets, once again heavily skewing towards the chess streamer.

One possible option for the overmatched founder? An irregular opening. The Cointelegraph weekend editorial team humbly suggests the Orangutan.

Excerpt from:
Battle of the Gigabrains: Vitalik Buterin to match wits with chess master - Cointelegraph

"The Queen's Gambit" has become more than "a chess show." The seven-episode Netflix miniseries has captured the attention of audiences worldwide and was the #1 show in over 12 countries. It has introduced or re-ignited viewers' interest in the royal gamewhether you need to learnhow the pieces move or if you are already a grandmaster, "The Queen's Gambit" has something for everyone.

After watching the show many fans simply want more! Well, Chess.com has you covered with lessons, player profiles, chess terms, openings, and even the new Beth Harmon bots.Here is a collection of content that is directly related to this brilliant show:

For those of you who haven't seen the show yet, "The Queen's Gambit" was adapted from a 1983 novel written by Walter Tevis. It is a story set in the Cold War-era and is a coming-of-age story that explores the true cost of genius: that of Beth Harmon, a highly-talented female chess player. Here is the Netflix description of the show:

Abandoned and entrusted to a Kentucky orphanage, Beth (played by Isla Johnston in her early years but mostly byAnya Taylor-Joy) discovers an astonishing talent for chess while developing an addiction to tranquilizers provided by the state as a sedative for the children.

Haunted by her personal demons and fueled by a cocktail of narcotics and obsession, she transforms into an impressively skilled and glamorous outcast while determined to conquer the traditional boundaries established in the male-dominated world of competitive chess.

The series is written and directed by Academy Award nominee Scott Frank (Minority Report, Logan, Godless) and executive produced by Frank, William Horberg (The Talented Mr. Ripley), and Allan Scott (Dont Look Now, The Preachers Wife), who also co-created the series.

You can read Chess.com's interview with Scott Frank (the writer/director/executive producer of "The Queen's Gambit") here. If you would like to read about the "real-life" Beth Harmon (or at least the chess world's closest equivalent) then this article by FM AndreyTerekhovabout Vera Menchik is a great place to start.

If you have already seen the show, here is a fantastic video review byWGM Jennifer Shahade, Chess.com's esports producer Aran Graham, and Chess.com's Chief Chess OfficerIM Danny Rensch.

You can now play against a virtual Beth Harmon at different ages and stages of her chess career. From young Beth first learning to play, all the way to her taking on the worlds top grandmasters, you can now face off against this powerful female chess player on Chess.com.

You can start by playing Beth (age 8)and then test your abilities against the stronger beth bots!

As we learned in Chess.com's News Director Peter Doggers' interview with Scott Frank, chess is done right in "The Queen's Gambit". They had the legendary world champion GM Garry Kasparov and the famous chess instructor NM Bruce Pandolfini on set to help with all of the chess scenes. They showed the actors how to move pieces properly, how to hit the clock, and also helped with many of the chess references used in the show. Many of these games are real games played by real players.

Here is an excellent lesson series by Chess.com's Jeremy Kane containing many positions from the show.If you'd like to dig even deeper, here is a video lesson by GM Simon Williams on Beth Harmon's top five moves.

Even though the chess in "The Queen's Gambit" was done extremely well, the keenest eyes have found a few mistakes. Chess.com's October 2020 Blog of the Month (written by Chess.com user Rocky64) found an almost imperceptible mistake during a specific scene.Chess.com's Director of Content NM Sam Copeland has a great blog on some of these slight errors here.

"The Queen's Gambit" mentions many, many chess terms. Here is a glossary of most of these chess terms:

Although Beth Harmon and the characters in "The Queen's Gambit" are fictional, there are many references to famous chess players. Here are some of the players mentioned in the show:

Jose Raul Capablanca is mentioned in the second episode where Beth asks the school librarian if there are any books about chessBeth even thumbs through one of his books. Capablanca was the third world champion (from 1921 through 1927) and is well-known for his legendary endgame skills and all-around positional proficiency. He didn't lose a single tournament game during an eight-year span from 1916-1924. He is widely accepted as one of the best players of all time.

Paul Morphy was the embodiment of romantic attacking chess and the strongest player of the entire 19th century. The American chess genius had a relatively short career, but he convincingly defeated the world's best players at the time and his Opera Game is considered to be one of the most famous games ever played.

GM Vasily Smyslov was the seventh world champion and still holds the record for most Chess Olympiad medals, with 17 total medals. He is remembered for his machine-like technical skill in the endgame.

GM Mikhail Botvinnik was the sixth world champion and held the title from 1948 through 1963 (with two one-one year exceptions in 1957 and 1960). Widely accepted as one of the strongest players of all time, he also coached three world champions (GMs Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, and Vladimir Kramnik).

Alexander Alekhine is mentioned by different characters throughout the series. In episode five, Benny Watts says that Beth "attacks like Alekhine"a player known for his vicious combinations in complex positions. Alekhine was the fourth world champion and he taught the chess world that rules and principles can be broken based on concrete analysis of the specific position.

GM Boris Spassky was the 10th world champion (from 1969-1972) and is a chess legend. He was a world championship candidate from 1956-1980 and became a worldwide celebrity during his 1972 World Championship match with the American GM Bobby Fischer.

GM Samuel "Sammy" Reshevsky was one of the greatest American players in history. He won the US Championships seven times and competed in the 1948 World Championship. His career is also remembered for its longevityhe defeated every world champion from Emanuel Lasker through Fischer.

GM Efim Bogoljubov was a world-class player who fought for the world championship twice against Alekhine. He was the firstFIDE world champion in 1928 and a two-time Soviet champion.

Nona Gaprindashvili became the Women's World Champion at the age of 20 and held the title for 16 years (from 1962-1978). She was the first woman to be awarded the grandmaster title in history. She is widely accepted as one of the strongest female chess players of all time.

There are many other famous chess players highlighted in "The Queen's Gambit" including Francois Philidor, Wilhelm Steinitz,Jacques Mieses, GM Reuben Fine, Ernst Grunfeld, GM Wolfgang Uhlmann, Hans Kmoch, Vasily Panov, GM Miguel Najdorf,Vladas Mikenas, GM Jonathan Penrose, and more.

It is not only chess terms and players that are highlighted in the serieschess openings also share the spotlight. Here is a list of some of the openings played or discussed by the characters, with links to Chess.com material.

The Queen's Gambit is the opening that is most referenced in the show, and the opening that the miniseries gets its name from. The opening is an excellent metaphor for Beth's lifesacrifices and hardships lead her to the top. The show displays both the Queen's Gambit Accepted and the Queen's Gambit Declined.

After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 the starting position for the Queen's Gambit is reached:

Black accepts the gambit by capturing the c4-pawn with 2... dxc4, and can decline it by playing 2... e6. Here is a short introductory video lesson on the Queen's Gambit for newer players, and here isgreat video lesson series on the Queen's Gambit Declined for more advanced players by GM Gregory Kaidanov.

The Sicilian Defense is another heavily featured opening. Mr. Shaibel, the janitor, was the first to introduce this opening to Beth in the first episode. It is an aggressive opening that Beth adds to her opening repertoire immediately, and is still the most popular choice to meet 1.e4 today.

The Sicilian Defense is reached after the moves 1.e4 c5:

Although there are many variations of the Sicilian Defense in the show (Sicilian dragon, Levenfish attack, Rossolimo attack, Scheveningen, and more) the Najdorf variation is mentioned and displayed the most. Benny Watts plays the Najdorf against Beth in their first meeting and Beth plays it herself. It is a very difficult opening line to master because of its many subvariations and advanced themesa challenge that does not intimidate the eight-year-old Beth.

The Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense is reached after the moves 1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6:

Here is a short introductory video lesson on the Sicilian Defense.

The Caro-Kann Defense is another mainstream opening that appears in the miniseries. Beth's friend and opponent in the final round of the 1963 Kentucky State Championship, Harry Beltik, plays this defense against her, and Benny Watts is talking about this opening with a small crowd when Beth first meets him. Unlike the Sicilian Defense, the Caro-Kann is not aggressive and has a very solid reputation. It is reached after the moves 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5:

Here is a short introductory video lesson on the Caro-Kann Defense and here is a more comprehensive video lesson series for advanced players on the Caro-Kann by GM Sam Shankland. Below you will find another introductory video by IM David Pruess:

This hypermodern opening for White was played by Beth against Mr. Ganz, Duncan High School's chess coach. Unlike the popular openings 1. e4 and 1. d4, the Reti opening does not begin the game with a pawn move. Instead, it develops a knight to control the center and begins with 1. Nf3:

You can learn more about the Reti opening hereat Chess.com/openings.

Shirley Munson, one of Mr. Ganz's students and treasurer of the chess club, asks Beth if she plays the King's Gambit. This dialogue occurs when both girls are on their way to Beth's simul in Duncan High School's chess club. The King's Gambit is a romantic attacking opening and was one of the most popular openings of the 19th century, though it has fallen out of favor in more recent times. It begins with moves 1. e4 e5 2.f4:

Here is an introductory video on the King's Gambit, and here is a more advanced video lesson series on the King's Gambit by GM Simon Williams.

Beth mentions that she played "the Marshall" when talking to her mother while playing in the US Open. She is referring to the Marshall Attack, an aggressive and advanced variation for Black in the very popular Ruy Lopez opening. After the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 the Ruy Lopez' starting position is reached:

The Marshall Attack occurs after the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 0-0 8. c3 d5:

This advanced line is covered in great detail in a video lesson series by Chess.com's NM Jeremy Kane.

Do you need a refresher on what happened in the show? What about a breakdown of each episode by none other than IM Danny Rensch himself? We've got you covered!

Elizabeth "Beth" Harmon goes to an orphanage after her mother dies when she is only eight-years-old. She soon develops an obsession with chess after seeing the janitor, Mr. Shaibel, playing it in the basement. She also becomes addicted to tranquilizers that the staff gives to all of the orphans.

Here is Danny Rensch and chess enthusiast James Montemagno's breakdown of the first episode of "The Queen's Gambit."

Teenage Beth gets adopted and moves to a house in the suburbs. As she struggles to adapt to her new life, she devises a plan to enter a chess tournament.

Beth goes to Cincinnati to play in a tournament and her performance puts her in the limelight. Many tournaments and media appearances later, Beth sets her eyes on the US Open.

Beth takes Russian classes and widens her social circle. She goes to Mexico City to play in an invitational tournament where she faces Grandmaster Borgov for the first time. Beth's mother comes along to meet an old friend.

Beth is back in Kentucky and reconnects with an old opponent who offers to help her prepare for the US Championship.

After training with Benny Watts in New York, Beth goes to a tournament in Paris where she will face Borgov again. However, a crazy night sends Beth on a self-destructive streak.

Beth gets reunited with an old friend and comes to terms with her past and priorities. She goes to Russia to play the biggest match of her life.

We hope you enjoyed this article and the miniseries. Keep an eye on this article, as we will be expanding on it as more content is created! Let us know your favorite part of the show in the comments below.

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The Queen's Gambit On Netflix - All The Info - Chess.com

Reuters Videos

French authorities have suspended police officers accused of assaulting and racially abusing a Black man in Paris, after CCTV footage of the incident was released and caused an outcry. The music producer, who has identified himself as Michel, was beaten at the entrance to his studio. French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted by France's BFM TV as being "very shocked" by the CCTV and mobile phone images, which were obtained by the LoopSider news outlet and made headline news on French channels. The officers involved were suspended pending investigation at the interior minister's request. Michel told reporters he'd been walking in the street without a face mask, against French COVID-19 rules. When he saw a police car he went into his studio to avoid getting a fine. But the police followed him inside and arrested him, violently. The video purports to show them kicking and beating him, and he says they hurled racial abuse at him too. They then leave, and throw a tear gas canister into the studio. As anger grew, French soccer stars added to the chorus of condemnation. Kylian Mbappe tweeted that the video was "intolerable" and his fellow Les Bleus striker, Antoine Griezmann wrote: "My France is hurting." The alleged attack on Michel risks inflaming racial tension, and fuelling criticism of a draft law that would limit journalists' ability to show images of French police officers at work. The prime minister's office said on Thursday (November 26) it would set up an independent commission to propose a new draft of the legislation. Some "BlackLivesMatter" protests broke out in Paris in June, a month after the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in the United States. The movement resonates in France, in particular in deprived city suburbs, where rights groups say accusations of police brutality, often against people with immigrant backgrounds, remain largely unaddressed. And Paris police were already under fire this week after social media photos and videos showed officers hitting protesters as they cleared out an illegal migrants campsite in a central Paris square.

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Chess championship: A 10-year-old Filipino takes over global stage - Yahoo News