Honestly, Marvel wishes they could do a “girl power” scene as awesome as the one in the season 2 finale of The Boys. It is legitimately one of the most cathartic scenes I have seen in fictional media in a long time and I’m trying to be vague because of spoilers but holy shit it is so good.
The funniest part of The Queen’s Gambit is when Benny’s like “I’m not going to have sex with you.” and the MOMENT Beth absolutely wipes his ass in speed chess he’s like “You know what…” I-
beth's little voice crack when she heard benny on the other line of the phone kills me ,, and that smile when the rest of them came on too, that's a girl who has been alone most of her life, and has gotten used to being alone and abandoned, who now realized that she isn't alone - she had alma, who did so much for her during the years they were together, she has jolene, who helped her get to russia, she has benny, who helped her train and train and was a worthy opponent, getting her to the top of her game, she has harry, who was one of her biggest supporters and helped her learn a great deal outside of chess, she has townes (whom this move redeemed a little in my eyes) who flew out to moscow to help support her and orchestrated the whole thing, she has matt and mike who were the first friends she made in the chess world
i just kinda melted, this is so wholesome
One of the things that impressed me about The Queen’s Gambit is that despite being written by a white man in the 80s it still has a really nuanced approach to gender and feminism. Beth’s opponents aren’t misogynistic caricatures, they’re people who respect and admire her ability. Beth rejects the gendered standards of her time but still embraces her femininity. Her main antagonist isn’t a Russian player who’s better than her it’s herself and her relationship with addiction. She a layered and complex protagonist who also happens to be a girl.
Something that kind of upset me in the show a little was how the Townes guy was made to be the supposed love of Beth’s life when in the novel it’s Jolene???? Whenever Beth sees a woman that she thinks is beautiful she associates her with Jolene. Jolene the person who she says she feels most comfortable with, even more than her mother. I mean Beth even thinks about how she wants to tell her she loves her but they completely ignored that part of their relationship :(
Iām a big fan of chess - I play a lot (though not very well!) and I love hearing about chess in literature and art. So it makes sense that Iāve been absolutely loving The Queenās Gambit. Itās ticked quite a few boxes for me, and itās so rare to see a show involving chess that not only understands the game and features real, plausible moves, but which is steeped in the lore of the game. Characters often discuss the lives and games of the greats - players like Morphy and Steinitz and Capablanca are common points of reference for these characters - but the way the show uses chess itself is an intelligent nod to the role of chess as a literary motif.Ā
For young Beth, chess gives her a contained, controlled world in which to escape from her harsh reality.Ā
Later, chess is a social interaction, a way of making friends, of spending time with friends, and of flirting and even seducing and being seduced. These symbolic roles of the game are subtly and cleverly done in the show and they draw on a long history of protrayals of chess games. So how can I notĀ ramble on about it for a bit? I make no apologies.
You probably know the famous motif of a game with death, immortalised in The Seventh Sealā¦
When you think about chess, you might well think of serious, concentrating old white dudes as in Honore Daumierās 1863 painting The Chess Playersā¦
ā¦but chess is always a bit more playful than that. The game with Death in The Seventh Seal draws on a tradition in medieval romances of games and riddles. Tales like āSir Gawain and the Green Knight,ā revolve around the allegorical (though heaven knows what for) use of riddles and games, and some of the Grail romances, for example, the hero comes to a chessboard castle where he meets a water-maiden.Ā
Modern chess really came about in 19th-century Europe when people like the first World Champions, Wilhelm Steinitz and Emmanual Lasker, helped codify it into systems of play (āopeningsā,Ā āmiddleā andĀ āendā games), but before that we had theĀ āRomanticā era of chess filled with dramatic gambits and sharp, tactical play rather than the slow-burning positional strategy that came later. And chess has always featured women. In 15th-century Italy, for example, chess was respectable for women because it did not rely on chance (and so wasnāt gambling) like dice and cards.Ā
Sofonisba Anguissolaās 1555 painting,Ā āThe Game of Chessā, is a nice example of chess being playful, social, and not at all just stern old men. Anguissola, just as a point of interest, was a court painter at the royal court in Spain, having trained informally withĀ Michelangelo, and she tutored the queen, Elizabeth of Valois, who was herself a keen amateur painter. She painted āThe Game of Chessā when she was 20, and it broke from convention at the time in its informality and lack of allegory - it literally just shows her three sisters,Ā Lucia, Minerva and Europa (great names, right?!), playing chess.Ā
Most things in the renaissance were allegorical and chess was no different. In Elizabethan and Jocobean theatre, chess was often used as a symbol for human life and government. Thomas Middletonās satire A Game of ChessĀ (1624) for example is structured around a game of chess, using it to satirise conflict between England and Spain (so controversial was its satire that it was shut down after only 9 days). Chess is a political allegory, as well as both a battle between Virtue and Vice, and a metaphor for the transience of human life. Ah, ambiguity, my old friendā¦
I first came across this tradition via T.S. Eliotās long poem The Waste LandĀ (1922) in which part two is entitledĀ āA Game of Chessāā¦
Eliot draws on a range of Jacobean drama, including Middletonās Women Beware WomenĀ (1657) where chess is used as a foil for seduction and rape (it being a bloody Jacobean tragedy after all).Ā
But chess seductions are not all forceful and morally uncomfortable, nor are all these references purely of artistic interest. Because there werenāt many chessĀ āmanualsā before Steinitz and Lasker came along in the late 19th century, a lot of our chess history comes from literature. For example, the Centre-Counter Opening or Scandinavia Defence was first recorded inĀ Scachs d'amor (Chess of Love)Ā a Spanish poem from the end of the 15th century where chess symbolises love.
Which is perhaps what is happening inĀ George Goodwin Kilburneās painting A Game of Chessā¦
And is definitely what is happening in The Queenās GambitĀ when Beth plays Benny where fast, frenetic, transactional games of speed chess symbolise the heated, superficial attraction between themā¦
And when she first plays Townes, the game is slow, full of adolescent nervesā¦
ā¦and her games with Beltik are so calm and thoughtful that no one seems to have made a gif of them!Ā
