The Queen’s Gambit isn’t just binge-worth entertainment, it’s a brilliant paradigm-shifting look at how relationships between the genders could or should change.
I didn’t immediately latch onto The Queen’s Gambit. Though the character, Beth Harmon, was extremely intriguing, the series seemed a little slick with its 1950’s and 60’s period sets and costumes, plus it clever editing. Also, I just wasn’t that interested in watching dozens of chess matches.
I’m afraid, like a multitude of people, I had always seen chess as a game for boys or men. According to 2018 statistics, only 15% of the 668,785 chess-players worldwide were women. And I never played well myself. Even losing to my 8-year-old grandson.
But Beth Harmon doesn’t lose. In fact she wins — over and over and over again. She’s an example of a highly motivated, talented, persevering, attractive young woman who (and this is very important) ultimately succeeds in her goal of winning the world championship in Russia. How many comparable females have we viewed on film or TV?
In fact, The Queen’s Gambit is the exact opposite of an Academy Award winning movie that came out almost 20 years ago which also featured a highly motivated, talented, persevering, attractive young women. But this young woman ends up in a hospital, biting off her tongue and being so miserable, her “sympathetic” coach unplugs her.
Remember that movie? Yep — Million Dollar Baby — the film I most despise in the world. Why? Because, I believe, the underlying message of this highly lauded film is that bright, talented young women may work long and hard for their goals but will ultimately lose — and may end up punished in the most horrible ways. It’s hard to imagine Rocky ending this way.
So let’s return to this much happier movie with a far more satisfying ending. In the Queen’s Gambit, Beth beats one man after another. Almost no other women participate in the competitions and yet none of the men she beats seem particularly unhappy about her success.
That’s what I consider truly miraculous about this Netflix series. The men she beats all become her devoted fans. Is that amazing and revolutionary or what?
From early contenders like Matt and Mike to other players like Harry and Benny and Jacob or even her final conquest, Borgov — the men she encounters treat her with respect if not awe. They never smirk when she makes suggestions. They may not agree but they never belittle her ideas. I can’t recall any time Beth is treated with condescension or contempt — not for her abilities or her goals. She’s accepted — accepted into a very prestigious and elite sphere that no woman prior to her has inhabited.
In fact, for the final important game, a number of her devoted admirers band together to help her win at the top level. Recognizing she needs help, they pitch in and feed her information so she can beat the Russian champ, Rostov, and become the world’s #1 chess player.
Beth’s good-looking and sexy — but again and again, the film emphasizes that isn’t her appeal to the men who revere her. She never hides who she is — not her intelligence, not her talent, not her ambition, nor her love of clothes — perhaps only her dependence on drugs. Again, she’s always accepted for who she is and encouraged to do better. Towards the end of the series, it’s pointed out several times — in a scene with a child player and in another scene with a young female chess-player — that Beth inspires others. Respectful and encouraging to other players, she never plays the “I’m just so much better than you” card. That’s one reason for the affection she garners from other characters.
Another feature of Beth’s success is that, during course of the series, she doesn’t just increase her chess-playing skills, she also gains empathy, compassion and the capacity for love. This emotional development begins with her friendship with Jolene (that’s amply repaid) and is further enhanced by her relationship with her non-conforming adoptive mom.
I say “non-conforming” because, as an adoptive mom myself, I know many of us strive to behave like Beaver’s mom, June Cleaver. We want to back cookies or be PTA president or lead Brownie troops, but many of us fail to behave like June. Mrs. Alma Wheatley is a depressed, alcoholic, pill-popping, neglected wife who first chooses to become Beth’s mother for the wrong reasons — because she wants a companion. Later, she chooses to actually mother Beth in the proactive sense — and the two become very close. Alma is always present to back up Beth, sitting through all her match, until the one she conspicuously misses. She encourages Beth to enjoy life — and provides an example of how life can be enjoyed right to the end — with good food and drink and attractive clothes and music. Beth may have inherited the braininess to play chess from her bio-mom but she gains the skills to connect with others and survive life’s vicissitudes from Alma.
Beth doesn’t experience many relationships with girls or women in the series. Yet her outstanding talent and competence don’t make her the object of envy or hatred by other jealous young women as in many chick-flicks.
In fact, her success doesn’t alienate her from others — it ultimately connects her to people. And human connection, I believe, is her greatest underlying need. Far more important than mere success at a difficult game.
Moreover, Beth doesn’t get so caught up in her success and fame that she loses sight of the reason she plays — the pure enjoyment of playing chess. In the last scene, she climbs out of the taxi where an American promoter is attempting to parlay her win into a prestigious stunt for the United States. Instead, she walks freely through the streets of Moscow until she comes upon some ordinary Russians who are playing chess for the joy of it. One invites her to sit down and she gladly accepts the offer.
In The Queen’s Gambit, Beth travels a long distance from being the lonely, bewildered child of a brilliant, unstable mother to being a beautiful, accomplished member of the world community, not just the chess community, but the human community. And now she’s opened the door for many girls and young women through the globe to aspire to the same.
