Netflix’s Queen’s Gambit made chess back in fashion.
Series and movies have a great impact on our well-being and very often motivate to deepen information on a given topic. And maybe after Netflix The Witcher we will not start killing monsters in the backyard, but there is a chance that we will become more interested in fantasy universes or learn about Sapkowski’s prose. It’s not about “Wieśek”, however, we are talking about today, because it was his younger friend from the same VOD platform that conquered the whole world, making many people fixate on ….
Queen’s Gambit, because we are talking about it, is a series about a talented, intelligent girl who is famous primarily for her extraordinary tactical and anticipatory skills, thanks to which she perfectly copes with the above-mentioned chess game. He is struggling not only with a mass of worthy opponents (e.g. with Marcin Dorociński), but also with his own weaknesses, with strong drugs at the forefront. The series gained recognition among critics, but also caused a strong curve charts on Google Trends.
These show an interesting relationship – more or less since the premiere of the new Netflix series, the popularity of two phrases has increased significantly in the US:Queen’s Gambit“(Which is not a surprise) and” learn chess “. Similarly to the American statistics, we checked the situation in Poland – and in this case the title “Queen’s Gambit” is searched as often as “chess”. You can see the data in the pictures below.
Dependency graph for the USA.
Dependency graph in Poland.
As you can see, people not only loved the series, but also inspired them to explore the subject and rules of chess, and even encouraged some to learn more seriously. Some people on Reddit admitthat Anya Taylor-Joy had rekindled their old love for the sport and have been sitting for several weeks on portals that allow playing games on virtual chessboards. We do not have to look far for examples – and our editorial office does not hide its new sneak peak related to the Queen’s Gambit:
Gambit also caused a stir in our editorial office – Hubert plays on the phone, and I learn with books. This whole frenzy that the show has caused, so I am not surprised. And although, while firing the first episode, I firstly rolled my eyes at my husband that it would be boredom, and secondly, I didn’t even know how to arrange the pieces on the chessboard, it was great for me to watch and the series got me hooked right away. Enough to finally be interested in what it’s all about. And although Beth will probably not be me, and there is still a long way to go to the grandmaster, at least I will have something to do on the long winter evenings. I guess quite a few of us thought the same.
Karolina “Ikazuchi” Złamańczuk, Social Media Manager of SamaGame.pl
With this set you can conquer the world.
Ikazuchi already thinks about the first chess voyages.
However, one should approach the Netflix work with an appropriate distance. In an interview with the Polish Olympian Klaudia Kulon on the pages of the Noizz portal, you can read that there are a few mistakes in the series when it comes to faithfully reproducing the mind game. The protagonist is said to make a lot of mistakes during her games, but fortunately these will not be noticed by Sunday chess enthusiasts.
We are curious if you were influenced by the Queen’s Gambit in such a way that you are now sitting on the internet forums to learn about the most complex moves and terms – from “en passant” to “zugzwang”. Let me know in the comments.
- Netflix website
