10 Hidden Details That Everyone Completely Missed In Netflixs The Queens Gambit

10 Hidden Details That Everyone Completely Missed In Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit

Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit sheds a whole new light into the world of chess, and it features plenty of details easy to miss.

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Netflix’s original miniseries The Queen’s Gambit continues to be one of the top-trending titles currently streaming on the platform. The seven-part series traces the unlikely rise of Elizabeth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), a drug-addled orphan who is introduced to the game of chess at the age of nine before immediately becoming one of the world’s most prodigious players.

As Beth climbs the ranks of international chess competitors, she is forced to deal with an alcoholic single mother, her growing celebrity as an adolescent, a male-dominated sport, and the pressures of the top-level chess tournaments. Although the show is easy to binge-watch, it’s just as easy to miss a slew of details buried below the surface.

10 Chessboard Authenticity

When it comes to the game of chess being depicted on the big or small screen, authentic details are often left out to the chagrin of knowledgeable players. On the contrary, The Queen’s Gambit production team went to painstaking lengths to ensure the utmost authenticity in terms of the chessboard and its pieces.

To help ensure the authenticity, famed National Master Bruce Pandolfini and Grandmaster Gary Kasparov served as technical consultants on the series. Unless you happen to be a chess expert, you’d never know how authentic the gameplay is in the show.

9 Modern Chess Openings

In addition to every episode of the series being named after an official chess move, the book that Mr. Shaibel gives to Beth in the first chapter Openings is littered with hidden details.

Mr. Shaibel gives Beth a copy of Modern Chess Openings, a real book that was published in 1911 that chess players often view as the holy grail of opening strategies. Mr. Shaibel gives Beth the 7th edition of the book when she is nine years old. However, later in the series, Beth buys a ninth edition of the same book at a convenience store in an instance that is easy to miss.

8 Jose Capablanca

In the second episode, Exchanges, Beth asks a grade-school librarian if they have any books on chess. The librarian ponders for a moment before mentioning the name Jose Capablanca in passing as a potential chess book.

The uninitiated chess player will completely miss the fact the Jose Raul Capablanca y Graupera was a real-life Cuban chess player who reigned as world champion from 1921 to 1927. Like Beth, Capablanca was also a chess prodigy who climbed the ranks as a youth before becoming renowned for his rate of play and endgame expertise.

7 Ben Snyder Department Store

Also in Exchanges, Beth’s adoptive mother Alma shows her new daughter little love by taking her to Ben Snyder’s Department Store to buy cheap out-of-style school clothing. Ben Snyder’s was a real store founded in 1913 and operated in the very Lexington, Kentucky location the show is set in from 1935-1980.

Those familiar with the area at the time may notice a hidden geographical detail. In the show, a Lexington Bank and Trust building is seen next to Ben Snyder’s but in reality, would have been the Ben-Ali theater.

6 Beltik’s Caro-Kann Defense

Beth suffers her first near-chess defeat at the hands of Harry Beltik, an older player with a fierce competitive streak. One of the ways Beltik was almost able to beat Beth is by employing a specific chess strategy known as the Caro-Kann Defense. Beth only learns about such defense until Benny teaches her after her, sometime later, which only chess experts are likely to notice.

The Caro-Kann Defense is a strategy marked by the moves 1. e4 c6 to combat the King’s Pawn opening. It is similar to the Sicilian Defense that Beth masters throughout the series, but would not be noticed unless one is looking for it.

5 Chess Review September 1963 Edition

At roughly 25-minutes into Exchanges, Beth considers stealing a copy of Chess Review Magazine from a convenience store. This is not a made-up detail, but a real publication that ran from 1933 to 1969. However, the dates are a bit mixed up.

Beth picks up the September 1963 issue of the magazine, which features a different cover photo than the real 1963 issue. The real cover featured the three winners of the Piatogorsky Cup. Moreover, flips to a “USSR Chess Championships” article that was actually published in the February 1963 Edition. The real “Pawn Power of Chess” article also seen was not published until 1968.

4 Chess Review October 1963 Edition

Another hidden detail can be found regarding the Chess Review publication in the show. At roughly 39 minutes into Exchanges, Beth picks up another edition of the magazine, this time with Benny Watts (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) featured on the cover.

This issue also existed in reality, although Benny Watts’ face has replaced that of famed chess prodigy Bobby Fischer. The real Fischer edition was issued in October of 1963.

3 Beth’s Moves Vs. Benny Watts

Beth suffers her second chess defeat to the Doctor Who-dressed Benny Watts, the rogue prodigy who has resigned from a life of tournament play. When they face off in the third episode, Doubled Pawns, several details allude to Beth’s brand of defense.

The first ten moves of the match are shown on screen, seven of which are a version of the Scheveningen Sicilian Defense known as the Sozin Variation. The moves also incorporate the Najdorf Variation, which is mentioned in passing during the first episode and reinforced by the discussion of Argentinian Grandmaster Miguel Najdorf.

2 Danny Weiss & David Friedman

During the fifth episode, Fork, Benny introduces Beth to a pair of young chess players named Danny Weiss and David Friedman. Only those who follow showrunner Scott Frank’s career closely will notice that these names are direct shoutouts to his friends and collaborators Danny (D.B) Weiss and David Benioff (born David Friedman).

After creating HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones, Weiss and Benioff joined Scott Frank for an adaptation of crime-novel Dirty White Boys. According to Deadline Hollywood in 2014, Benioff said “our friend Scott Frank brought up the opening line of Dirty White Boys…”

1 Paul Morphy/Duke Karl Homage

In the penultimate episode Adjournment, Beth and Benny play a round of competitive speed chess. The final combo of winning moves is taken move-for-move from the infamous 1858 match between Paul Morphy and Duke Karl/Count Isouard.

At the end of the match, the camera hovers over the chess pieces. The board recreates the final position of the Morphy/Duke match with a Rook/Bishop winning combo-move. Even scholarly chess historians may have missed the hidden detail.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/netflix-the-queens-gambit-missed-details-trivia/

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