Queen’s Gambit Trivia | 40 facts about the Netflix miniseries

Queen’s Gambit aired at Netflix on October 2020, and ever since it managed to conquer (almost) every viewer’s heart.

This is why we are about to find out more about the Netflix Original mini series, Queen’s Gambit.

1. The Queen’s Gambit is an American dramatic television miniseries.
2. It is based on Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel of the same name.
3. It was created by Scott Frank and Allan Scott.
4. It was released on Netflix on October 23, 2020.
5. The Queen’s Gambit is a fictional story that follows the life of an orphan chess prodigy named Beth Harmon from the age of eight to twenty-two during her quest to become the world’s greatest chess player while struggling with emotional issues and with drug and alcohol dependency.
6. The story begins in the mid-1950s and proceeds into the 1960s.
7. On March 19, 2019, Netflix had given the production a series order consisting of six episodes.
8. The series was directed by Scott Frank, who also created the series with Allan Scott
9. The two also served as executive producers alongside William Horberg.
10. Carlos Rafael Rivera composed the series score.
11. Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov and chess coach Bruce Pandolfini acted as consultants.
12. Alongside the series order announcement, it was announced that Anya Taylor-Joy was set to star as the lead.
13. In January 2020, it was reported Moses Ingram had joined the cast of the series.
14. Upon the miniseries premiere date announcement, it was announced that Bill Camp, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Harry Melling and Marielle Heller were cast in starring roles.
15. Principal photography began in August 2019 in Cambridge, Ontario.
16. Filming also took place in Berlin.
17. In Berlin they filmed in the the Kino International, the Berlin Zoo and the Friedrichstadt-Palast.
18. Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly gave the series a B and described the lead actress, “Taylor-Joy excels in the quiet moments, her eyelids narrowing as she decimates an opponent, her whole body physicalizing angry desperation when the game turns against her.”
19. Reviewing the miniseries for Rolling Stone, Alan Sepinwall gave it 3 out of 5 stars.
20. Variety‘s Caroline Framke wrote “The Queen’s Gambit manages to personalize the game and its players thanks to clever storytelling and, in Anya Taylor-Joy, a lead actor so magnetic that when she stares down the camera lens, her flinty glare threatens to cut right through it.”
21. For the miniseries, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 100% based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 7.99/10.
22. The website’s critics consensus reads, “Its moves aren’t always perfect, but between Anya Taylor-Joy’s magnetic performance, incredibly realized period details, and emotionally intelligent writing, The Queen’s Gambit is an absolute win.”
23. Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on 27 reviews, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.
24. In general, the Queen’s Gambit is a chess opening.
25. It starts with the following moves:1. d4d5 2. c4
26. The Queen’s Gambit is one of the oldest known chess openings.
27. It was mentioned in the Göttingen manuscript of 1490 and was later analysed by masters such as Gioachino Greco in the 17th century.
28. In the 18th century, it was recommended by Phillip Stamma and is sometimes known as the Aleppo Gambit in his honour.
29. During the early period of modern chess, queen pawn openings were not in fashion and the Queen’s Gambit did not become common until the 1873 tournament in Vienna.
30. So, the title itself tells a lot about the plot, before you even read it.
31. Unlike a majority of movies and television shows depicting chess boards, the chess boards are always set up correctly in this series and the chess games and positions are realistic.
32. Heath Ledger was originally attached to direct a film adaptation before his untimely death.
33. Mr. Shaibel gives Elizabeth a book titled ‘Modern Chess Openings’.
34. Usually called MCO, this book was written by Richard Clewin Griffith and John Herbert White and first published in 1911.
35. It has since seen 15 editions, and has been described as the ‘first scientific study of the openings in the twentieth century’.
36. In an interview, Anya Taylor-Joy (Beth Harmon) said that before taking the role, her level of chess knowledge was “0, none.”
37. She went on to say that throughout the filming of the series, she was “invited into a very secret world…” “it was so exciting to be able to have the pressure of ‘you have to learn this very complicated sequence, over 3 boards, as quick as you can in 5 minutes’…”
38. Thomas Bodie-Sangster (Benny Watts) and Harry Melling (Harry Beltik) also admitted that they knew very little about the game prior to filming.
39. Throughout the series, the age Harmon was first taught chess is sometimes given as eight and sometimes nine.
40. Anna – Taylor Joy, playing the lead role, portrays Beth Harmon.