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Queen's Gambit

  • 30-10-2020 2:48pm
    #1
    sodacat11
    Registered Users Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭


    We watched all seven episodes in one sitting. It is great to see anything promoting chess and I am sure that this mini series will encourage people, especially girls, to take up chess but as a piece of drama I didn't think that it was all that brilliant. The main character is very weak and as in all American programmes was always looking like a model with a hair never out of place and dressed in designer clothes. The plot/ storyline was also weak and areas that could have been further developed just weren't. I thought that the character in the hat was excellent and the step mother also gave a strong performance but the main character just wasn't believable. The chess content was quite good but I don't see why they felt the need to mention by name just about every famous player who ever existed. Overall I'd give it 7/10 but put it miles behind series like Line of Duty, Shetland, Strike or any of the excellent Scandinavian, French or Belgian series that we get.


Comments

  • #2
    RedRochey
    Registered Users Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭RedRochey


    I know this is a chess forum but there's a thread in the Television forum if you want to talk about it there too:

    https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=114715459


  • #3
    Ficheall
    Registered Users Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭Ficheall


    sodacat11 wrote: »
    always looking like a model with a hair never out of place and dressed in designer clothes.
    Pretty much like your average Irish congress player then!


  • #4
    Joedryan
    Registered Users Posts: 479 ✭✭Joedryan


    Watching it, enjoying it so far. Some of the scenes are very close to reality, the bohemian lifestyle etc


  • #5
    anchor4208
    Registered Users Posts: 104 ✭✭anchor4208


    Nice interview with Ioana Miller on Today FM to discuss the series, you can listen here https://www.todayfm.com/podcasts/page/1/filter?filter_selected=show-filter&show=mairead-ronan&series=all

    Pity there's no actual chess taking place for us to exploit all the publicity


  • #6
    Ficheall
    Registered Users Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭Ficheall


    The actress is in a film being shot up near Malin head at the moment, if any of ye are up that neck of the woods and want to keep an eye out :P


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  • #7
    Joedryan
    Registered Users Posts: 479 ✭✭Joedryan


    I always wondered why Shirov was looking up at the ceiling, must have been taking those funny pills like Beth :)


  • #8
    sodacat11
    Registered Users Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    Joedryan wrote: »
    I always wondered why Shirov was looking up at the ceiling, must have been taking those funny pills like Beth :)[/QUOTE

    David Howell did that when I played him too. I figure people just do it to show off or to annoy their opponent as there can't be any advantage in looking at the ceiling instead of the board.


  • #9
    Joedryan
    Registered Users Posts: 479 ✭✭Joedryan


    sodacat11 wrote: »
    David Howell did that when I played him too. I figure people just do it to show off or to annoy their opponent as there can't be any advantage in looking at the ceiling instead of the board.

    There were several Russian players who had a nasty habit of trying to just stare into your eyes, best tactic was to stare back at them. That made them think again and run away but didnt help much with the position


  • #10
    mikhail
    Registered Users Posts: 3,863 ✭✭✭mikhail


    Joedryan wrote: »
    There were several Russian players who had a nasty habit of trying to just stare into your eyes, best tactic was to stare back at them. That made them think again and run away but didnt help much with the position
    There's a story that someone decide Tal's stare was hypnotic or something, so they were going to turn up at the board in sunglasses. Tal got wind of it and turned up in giant novelty glasses. I think it was Polugaevsky, but couldn't swear to it.


  • #11
    Ficheall
    Registered Users Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭Ficheall


    sodacat11 wrote: »
    David Howell did that when I played him too. I figure people just do it to show off or to annoy their opponent as there can't be any advantage in looking at the ceiling instead of the board.
    Maybe their opponent is distractingly attractive?


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  • #12
    sodacat11
    Registered Users Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    Ficheall wrote: »
    Maybe their opponent is distractingly attractive?

    Oh, that explains why all my female opponents did it.


  • #13
    HaraldSchmidt
    Registered Users Posts: 55 ✭✭HaraldSchmidt


    Hannah Lowry O'Reilly and my good self will be chatting on Claire Byrne Live tomorrow (Tuesday) morning sometime between 10:30 and 11:00.


  • #14
    Eugene Donohoe
    Registered Users Posts: 70 ✭✭Eugene Donohoe


    Well done - ye did a very good job.


  • #15
    HaraldSchmidt
    Registered Users Posts: 55 ✭✭HaraldSchmidt


    Thanks Eugene. Sadly, the previous item ran over time, and so we only had a few minutes to talk about the show. Also Claire Byrne totally controls who speaks and what they talk about. Anyway, it was fun to do.

    BTW, when we all have the vaccine, take a cheap flight to Berlin, and go and visit all the places in the show. They filmed most of it there. The orphanage was also a large house outside of Berlin. There was an article on the locations on chessbase.com.


  • #16
    sporina
    Registered Users Posts: 6,778 ✭✭✭sporina


    Just finished watching this - I enjoyed it - but I am confused..

    So - she started with the tranquillisers - did they help her play? As a kid? I recall her being able to visualise the board and pieces in bed.. and what - she was learning how to play - kinda in her sleep?

    And in the final ep she said that the meds and booze help her visualise the game? Does she mean, work out scenarios in her head as she's playing?

    But she lost the game in Paris cos she was hungover, right?

    I guess in the end, booze/meds or none - she was a chess genius?


  • #17
    sodacat11
    Registered Users Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    sporina wrote: »
    Just finished watching this - I enjoyed it - but I am confused..

    So - she started with the tranquillisers - did they help her play? As a kid? I recall her being able to visualise the board and pieces in bed.. and what - she was learning how to play - kinda in her sleep?

    And in the final ep she said that the meds and booze help her visualise the game? Does she mean, work out scenarios in her head as she's playing?

    But she lost the game in Paris cos she was hungover, right?

    I guess in the end, booze/meds or none - she was a chess genius?
    I think that all the anomalies just have to be classed under "poetic licence".
    It is an enjoyable series and I am delighted that it is promoting chess so much but I didn't find the main character very believable, especially when she woke up with a huge hangover after an amorous night with her make up still perfect and not a hair outa place. maybe she wasn't as good in bed as she was at chess :pac:


  • #18
    sporina
    Registered Users Posts: 6,778 ✭✭✭sporina


    sodacat11 wrote: »
    I think that all the anomalies just have to be classed under "poetic licence".
    It is an enjoyable series and I am delighted that it is promoting chess so much but I didn't find the main character very believable, especially when she woke up with a huge hangover after an amorous night with her make up still perfect and not a hair outa place. maybe she wasn't as good in bed as she was at chess :pac:

    thanks but that doesn't answer my query at all...

    any insight, anyone?


  • #19
    mikhail
    Registered Users Posts: 3,863 ✭✭✭mikhail


    sporina wrote: »
    thanks but that doesn't answer my query at all...

    any insight, anyone?
    All players above a certain standard can visualise the board to play out moves in our head. We call it calculating: we have a little conversation internally where we go, "I play this, then he plays that, then I play this, then what next?" and so on.

    Many a player, particularly stronger ones, can play a game entirely in their head. Here, for example, is Alexander Baburin, an Irish-resident grandmaster, playing a quick game (6 minutes vs 5) against Jonathan O'Connor, a strong Irish amateur (I guess top 50 in Ireland for many years) while blindfolded. It's not that much of a handicap for him, because he's able to maintain and manipulate the position in his head. I'm not able to do this very well, but it wouldn't surprise me if Jonathan can, for example. Baburin later gave a blindfold simultaneous exhibition, playing perhaps half a dozen or more amateurs at the same time! That is really stretching even a masters' abilities, but I think he managed to beat all of them.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsazuR22244


    In the show, you saw Beth as a child re-playing the moves she saw in the game earlier, which is her way of analysing why she lost - she's learning, and she's doing it in a way that suggests she has enormous native talent. Most beginners can't do this at all.

    As for whether drugs helped her play, it's unlikely. Alcohol and drugs are probably a hindrance to most players, though less than you'd think. I once played in a New Year's Eve blitz in Spain: a short tournament for fun where players have just a few minutes each. There was a pair of Russian masters at it who had clearly started celebrating New Year's the second it hit Vladivostok. They were messy drunk - were on the verge of being kicked out for messing in fact - but still had most of their playing strength intact, and finished well ahead of me.

    There are no doubt high-functioning alcoholics and drug users at all levels of the game (and throughout society), many of whom are in bad shape when completely sober. Perhaps this is what was being hinted at in the show.


  • #20
    sporina
    Registered Users Posts: 6,778 ✭✭✭sporina


    mikhail wrote: »
    All players above a certain standard can visualise the board to play out moves in our head. We call it calculating: we have a little conversation internally where we go, "I play this, then he plays that, then I play this, then what next?" and so on.

    Many a player, particularly stronger ones, can play a game entirely in their head. Here, for example, is Alexander Baburin, an Irish-resident grandmaster, playing a quick game (6 minutes vs 5) against Jonathan O'Connor, a strong Irish amateur (I guess top 50 in Ireland for many years) while blindfolded. It's not that much of a handicap for him, because he's able to maintain and manipulate the position in his head. I'm not able to do this very well, but it wouldn't surprise me if Jonathan can, for example. Baburin later gave a blindfold simultaneous exhibition, playing perhaps half a dozen or more amateurs at the same time! That is really stretching even a masters' abilities, but I think he managed to beat all of them.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsazuR22244


    In the show, you saw Beth as a child re-playing the moves she saw in the game earlier, which is her way of analysing why she lost - she's learning, and she's doing it in a way that suggests she has enormous native talent. Most beginners can't do this at all.

    As for whether drugs helped her play, it's unlikely. Alcohol and drugs are probably a hindrance to most players, though less than you'd think. I once played in a New Year's Eve blitz in Spain: a short tournament for fun where players have just a few minutes each. There was a pair of Russian masters at it who had clearly started celebrating New Year's the second it hit Vladivostok. They were messy drunk - were on the verge of being kicked out for messing in fact - but still had most of their playing strength intact, and finished well ahead of me.

    There are no doubt high-functioning alcoholics and drug users at all levels of the game (and throughout society), many of whom are in bad shape when completely sober. Perhaps this is what was being hinted at in the show.


    awe ok - thanks for that.. I didn't know about the calculating... i am not a chess player.. but it did seem that the tranquillisers helped her visualise the board, rem when she was in bed in the orphanage, she would pop the pill and then the board and pieces would appear on the ceiling.. and in the last series.. she said "i miss the pills and booze - they help me visualise the game"..

    but yeah thanks - i didn't know that great players could "visualise/calculate".. wow.. cool..

    ok - not that I have a better understanding of the series, I like it even better..

    although, I would imagine that tranquillisers and or booze would reduce my ability to think clearly but then again, I am a light weight lol.. (and have never had a tranquilliser) - but I guess substances etc affect people differently


  • #21
    sodacat11
    Registered Users Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    mikhail wrote: »
    All players above a certain standard can visualise the board to play out moves in our head. We call it calculating: we have a little conversation internally where we go, "I play this, then he plays that, then I play this, then what next?" and so on.

    Many a player, particularly stronger ones, can play a game entirely in their head.
    Surprisingly Mikail Botvinnik , one of the greatest players of all time, by his own admission had trouble visualizing.


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  • #22
    Ficheall
    Registered Users Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭Ficheall


    Andrew Tang playing 15second blindfold:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEpHfDoRZBk


  • #23
    mikhail
    Registered Users Posts: 3,863 ✭✭✭mikhail


    sodacat11 wrote: »
    Surprisingly Mikail Botvinnik , one of the greatest players of all time, by his own admission had trouble visualizing.
    Really? I wonder if he was just holding himself to a higher standard.


  • #24
    sodacat11
    Registered Users Posts: 1,297 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    mikhail wrote: »
    Really? I wonder if he was just holding himself to a higher standard.

    When Mikhail Botvinnik lost on first board during the 1955 Soviet-American match, the world champion explained the result simply; "It shows I need to perfect my play of two move variations."


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