Beth Harmon's QUEEN SACRIFICES || The Queen's Gambit (Netflix)

[@PowerPlayChess]

If you ❤️ my videos do *subscribe* bit.ly/powerplaysubscription and do checkout the *supporting* *options* through Patreon: bit.ly/patreondanielking or through *PayPal* (links in the description)

[@HunterBelkiran]

Your american accent made my day XDD

[@mixolydian2010]

yeah i laughed out loud too

[@53puskas53]

What a beautiful book! I would love to see a video of you showing some of the other books in your chess library.

[@barryjacobs9615]

Fantastic content, as usual, thanks for taking the time to cover the series. It's been fantastic for chess, was great to see my partner's daughter wanting to play after watching the series.

[@jonchess8844]

Wonderful series , really happy that Danny is looking into this Netflix show.👍👍👍👍

[@Saffierhoven]

Daniel, you are a real gentleman. You 've made this tribute with love and an eye for detail, just like the makers of the movie. Thanks... and after corona we should have a beer together.

[@robertmcligeyo9772]

Amazing content keep up the good work

[@costaran]

started following recently and now i'm an addict. thx for the great content 🙏

[@stefanholbek2449]

Excellent research work in this series, Mr. King! I enjoyed the mini series as well on Netflix.

[@clarenceyee3529]

The Capablanca book used in the series looks like a first edition. There is a closeup as she is leafing through the pages and you can see the text is descriptive and page centered and the corners are rounded.

[@liahamp2764]

Very interesting how much effort they put into the series. Thanks for the video.

[@tedblack8361]

Excellent quality as always Mr King. Apparently Amazon sales of chess related items have gone up by 266% as a direct result of this series, based (very faithfully I may add) on the wonderful book by Walter Tevis.

[@DG-ss2zd]

Great video, I started the series last night!

[@thomaskember4628]

Kasparov took the study by Rink but he must have thought up moves in a game to reach that position. Often this is almost impossible with studies.

[@myopenmind527]

Glad you finally got around to watching. 👍

[@davidchang8428]

Thanks for your work, Daniel King!

[@themasterofthemansion3809]

And now we all who can distinguish Capablanca's My Chess Career first edition from the second edition should tell Daniel whether he is right or wrong. When I look at my copies of those editions I am not so sure about which was used.

[@edwardwitten9454]

It would be great if you could do another video in this series, to bring us up through episode 7.

[@Dessan01]

I read the book many times over the years, I always knew it would make a great adaptation for tv / film. Apparently Heath Ledger was working on getting a film version done just before his death, obviously when that happened the project halted.

[@chrisedwards4929]

descriptive notation... love it.. My first books were in it and I've got many older books - not quite so famous :( - and P-K4 seems more real

[@muzickman76]

That first edition must be worth a bit!

[@SoulmateParis]

Great commentary thanks ! Interesting and entertaining!

[@TheChessGiant]

Thanks for the great video! Great series!

[@rojokongen]

I wondered when (or if) you'd review the series and its games. Great to see your enthusiasm, which I share. Also agreed on your criticism on not using games from female players. But as you pointed to: it's minor. Looking forward to the rest of the games! 🤗

[@harleygreninger8173]

The only glitch I caught was when Beth first defeated the Janitor and he demanded to play again-- he started to reset the pieces by placing a Knight on the KB1 (f1) square. I suppose this could be attributed to him being a bit rattled after his loss.

[@1stJJ]

What a beautiful first edition!

[@Yetia]

Indeed. 100 years ago! I hardly doubt my computer files survive al least half of the time.

[@Soulcella]

Loved the series! All chess players(actors) in the film did a great job. There are 2 things -in my opinion -where you can tell, that the people/actors are no real chess players: 1. moving pieces 2. capturing pieces Usually „real“ chess players move/capture pieces more elegantly and smoothly. Just something I noticed. Do you guys agree? However, this is not a negative critique, just an observation. The series is awesome and so is Mr D. King 🙂✌️

[@PowerPlayChess]

I agree, there were tells that they weren't more practised players - but we know that already! It's whether you can't get passed that to enjoy the rest of it. I enjoyed the style, the cinematography, and the performances.

[@MrRobbyvent]

you preceded me. I observed how they handled the pieces that was not natural

[@hhgygy]

Just watched this brilliant series and immediately clicked on the title of this post.

[@12Knaves]

We NEED more Daniel with American voice impersonations on this channel 😂

[@birdiecrain5416]

I thought the same thing, I thought for sure they were going to include Judit vs Garry, and was a little disappointed we didn’t get a single Polgar game.

[@tome57a]

Garry probably wasn't about to let them show a game he lost to Judit - covered recently by GM King, by the way - but yeah, no Polgar game at all? What's with that?

[@tanmayatripathy9008]

Fantastic channel

[@abhijeetgore310]

I liked both the web series and this video very much.

[@drob9673]

Beth played Botez Gambit aka Queen Sacrifice before it was cool :D

[@bernardovargas88]

Love the program it was my day of thinking

[@southron_d1349]

It would be great if, like the famous battle in Reykjavik, the series encourages more people to play.

[@cidmatrix9643]

The analysis was great, but the accent is brilliant!

[@guest_informant]

Isn't that Reti-Tartakower game in the introduction to Logical Chess: Move By Move

[@mixolydian2010]

Doesnt seem to be, just checked the intro and list of games in my copy. Great book BTW.

[@guest_informant]

@@mixolydian2010 Just checked, it's in the Chernev book, (is there a John Nunn book with a similar/the same name) and is used to introduce notation and symbols.

[@mixolydian2010]

​@@guest_informant Mine is Logical Chess Move by Move by Irving Chernev. Faber and Faber, 1957 ISBN 0 571 09039 7. Is this the same as yours? Be cool if you can give me the page, cheers.

[@guest_informant]

@@mixolydian2010 I've got two copies(!) 1998 Batsford (green cover) ISBN(13) 9780713484640 It's on p8 of the *Chess Notation and Symbols* section 1998 Batsford (orange-ish cover) ISBN(13) 9780713484649 It's in the same place Aha! Looking more closely, this is the first algebraic edition and my guess is the _editors_ used the Reti-Tartakower game to illustrate the conventions of algebraic notation to a UK readership. That's its purpose in the book. So it's not in Chernev's original.

[@jackgillam5431]

In the Townes game, if he moves his king to e3 is there any way Beth wins? Taking the pawn really seemed to be his downfall

[@abhijeetgore310]

Great Content.

[@pliskin11]

Daniel, hi?! Where and how could you find the games? The chessboard is not showen in the scenes 🤷‍♂️

[@PowerPlayChess]

If you have a look at the photos in the video you will see that it is possible to see the chessboard. Then I used the search facility in the ChessBase program, and for the compositions, other endgame databases. Basically, it involved some detective work that took some time and effort!

[@pliskin11]

PowerPlayChess Ahh, I understand Daniel. Thanks, love your work and your videos 🙏

[@sam-lz6pi]

Great show and fantastic for chess, but I do have a few reservations (apart from players talking to each other during the game). First of all, the players move way too fast for a classical game, secondly, this knocking over your king to resign is slightly ridiculous, but most of all, I find it very hard to believe that Soviet chess fans would have been rooting for an American female player, who is crushing all of their best male players one after another.

[@PowerPlayChess]

The staging of the games is clearly done for a non-chess audience, hence the knocking over of the king. As for your comment about Soviet chess fans, I think you are making the mistake of imagining there was one Soviet opinion and that they always rooted for their top player. The Soviet Union had a population of millions divided into many different nationalities, and many different political factions (even if they weren't expressed in elections). In my experience of playing tournaments in the Soviet Union, people had a deep appreciation of chess (much greater than in the West) and they respected great chess and great chess players. This is one part of the story that I found believable! Why not support Beth? She was young, talented, and beautiful!

[@sam-lz6pi]

@@PowerPlayChess Dear Mr. King, many thanks for taking the time to comment. You are obviously right; I guess I was just nitpicking. This is a great show and apparently it's making chess very popular with people of all ages, which is what really matters at the end of the day.

[@NemesisGR21]

Great show even for non-chess players. It is all clearly based on Bobby Fisher's life.I feel like someone should mention it.He is the sole reason chess is so popular.

[@The_Angry_BeEconomist]

you are not a real chess fan if you haven't watched the series yet and watching this by Daniel

[@guest_informant]

Octopus Knight

[@schaffermarke]

Interesting point about games by great women players, but I wonder if this wasn't a deliberate choice by the makers of the series. They would have known the chess community would try to uncover the original games. Maybe they are saying, "You may know these games by men. But use your imagination. Why not picture women as winning them or composing them?"

[@Commanber]

I liked the series but a few things annoyed me: 1. It always looks like they're playing Blitz, moving instantly even in classic time control games (which are most games in the series). Yeah sometimes they show the game as a kind of montage but often the opponents just blitz out moves like it's a 5 minute game. 2. I know Beth is supposed to be a prodigy but the fact that she barely ever loses a game in the whole series and has exactly zero draws kind of lessens the tension and cheapens her victories. I mean, dead drawn positions do happen, even players like Tal or Fischer couldn't avoid that and sometimes you lose because you miscalculated. But Beth really only loses in her training montage as a child (doesn't really count), in the Blitz games against Benny (they don't really count either and anyway she miraculously gets so good at Blitz with zero training that she later wins a Blitz simul against Benny and his friends with zero losses or draws) and then like two games in tournaments, one against the world champion. The series is supposed to be a "sports movie" type of story and it kind of lowers the stakes when nobody even has a chance against Beth anyway when she's not high or drunk. So the series seems to be more about her not sabotaging herself than getting better at the game, because she's actually already almost flawless. 3. The cinematography of the games focuses too much on taking pieces for my taste. They blitz out their moves and whenever we see what they are doing on the board, as soon as they're out of the opening, it seems like 90% of their moves are taking pieces. It's weird that they did their homework with the actual chess games and even had Kasparov behind the scenes but then show the games in this almost comical way as if chess was only about taking pieces. Obviously this is something only chess players would even notice but still. 4. I didn't know before watching your video that they actually didn't include any games from female chess players and honestly, now that I know - that also annoys me. Judit Polgar has so many crazy attacking games, exactly the style Beth would play in the series. What a missed opportunity. Anyway, still a cool series. I liked it.

[@benhaskin1159]

Thank you Daniel King! I was thinking the same thing about the games all being by men in the series. It does seem like a massive missed opportunity. Do you think this points to a sexist attitude by Messrs Pandolfini and Kasparov? Chess has a bad rap for sexism, eg I recall reading about Nigel Short sounding off about women chess players' inferiority, etc, etc. (I certainly don't want to start some kind of culture war here on the powerplay chess channel. Maybe it's too late....) Does chess have a woman problem? At the very highest levels, it seems that men outnumber women about 100 to 1. It's incredibly difficult at these rarefied heights, and potentially a little bit mad, right? Who wants to think only about chess for their entire lives? Perhaps more women than men decide they've got better things to devote their lives to? I love chess, but, you know, all things in moderation. It's a black hole, a bottomless pit, etc, etc. It's addictive. When I had just lost a match to a 10-year-old at my local club, his dad told me how great he thought chess was for his son. I was bemused. It's like giving a kid crack. I'm only half-kidding... Anyway, thanks a lot for all your excellent content. I watch it religiously. Gotta feed the habit!

[@Elijah_Everett]

9:38 if the rook is taken then Qf2 wins the rook. Not that it matters though

[@irradiatedbadger]

Not my favorite show ever, but love what it's doing for the chess community. 2020 was not a good year in general but it was a good year for chess 😅

[@torrawel]

Hi, I was actually a bit disappointed to be honest. As a chess player (the games go way too fast, it is clear that the actors memorized a few games, the ratings don't match with the level of play, the fact that there seems to be only one other real strong player - is he world champion or not?, the mishandeling of both clock and notation, etc, etc) but also as someone who loves films. Yes, most actors do a really good job, but I found the story itself quite boring actually. I switched away many times and only finished the series because I had started it with someone else.... Also, you mentioned that there were no games from strong female players. I mentioned quite early on that there were no other strong female players in the series. Clearly done to make the contrast even bigger. The image of the weird chess player (grumpy, self obsessed or fixated men) versus the lonely girl who actually needs drugs to play well... A bit sad... Not to mention that (before she arrives on the scene), the best American chess player is some sort of young hippy cowboy who lives in the basement of his flat in New York... Not very convincing. I also thought the final weird & not even from the perspective of a chess player: is the goal of the whole series to win just 1 game against the strongest player? Not even a match? Just 1 game? So... all in all... Not for me. Which obviously doesn't mean that I don't like the attention this brings to our game. I'm sure (especially during this pandemic), it will see a rise in chess enthusiasts! Which is great!

[@tedblack8361]

Read the book

[@torrawel]

@@tedblack8361 I might indeed do. Is it better? (books usually are ;))

[@tedblack8361]

I found it a good read, remember, its a story not just about chess.

[@qwertzyq2177]

ye completely agree with you, esp that knocking down king when someone want to resign,thats just bs dont know why are movie guys so opsessed with that never happens in real life

[@PowerPlayChess]

I hear what you are saying. The story arc was quite 'Hollywood'. I can forgive the short-cuts on the games as it is necessary for dramatic purposes and to make the chess understandable for non-chessplayers. Some of the characters did seem eccentric, but in my experience that rings true for the chess world! As for the drink and drugs - as I'm sure you know, there are several great players in chess history who had similar problems: Alekhine and Tal the most famous examples. Naturally this is fiction and stories are exaggerated to make a more dramatic story! As a player I know that much of the storyline is unrealistic. The question is whether you can suspend your disbelief to enjoy the rest of it. Many things about the chess scene they got right.

[@dariuszkopotowski9176]

Green-white pills and you play well hahaha :D

[@johnfarragut2185]

For inclusion of a game by a female player, I’ll vote for Gunina v Sebag “Beware the femme fatale” kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmfIqaCln5ahbZo With the improvement 27. Na5!! even better-That was a fun one.

[@aryamanjain4332]

first again , please give me a heart

[@kamaran7539]

why judeit pulgar has bad idea about the film? she said none was encourage her to play chess as in the flim, its true?

[@yorick021]

I watched the whole series but I dont recognize the first game for example? When did Beth play blindfold? And they show only a few moves of games right? How can people on KZbin show whole games? I am confused ;)

[@mostafasaad8725]

I think they avoided games by famous chess players to avoid any legal drama with copyright issues and whatnot.

[@PowerPlayChess]

There is no copyright on chess games. My point was, they could have used games by famous women chess players

[@mostafasaad8725]

@@PowerPlayChess I didn’t know that. It is still safe from the legal point of view to avoid any recent games by famous chess players. The legal teams in such big productions have a lot of control and they make similar decisions all the time.

[@abhijeetgore310]

@@PowerPlayChess Sir could you please arrange a subscribers tournament on lichess. It will be pleasure taking part in it.🙏🙏

[@roqsteady5290]

@@PowerPlayChess Well they could have, but it seems like an unnecessary restriction. One of the messages of the series conveyed by Beth Harmon was that her sex was irrelevant to her art, other than in the minds of the journalists. The way to discourage discrimination, surely, is not to engage in it and do the same thing in reverse.

[@Narrowcros]

Wouldnt watch that over rated historically inaccurate show that tries to be accurate and makes a billion false claims on womens chess play.

[@tedblack8361]

Its based on a novel, its not based on fact

[@Narrowcros]

@@tedblack8361 Tell that to most people that don't play chess. Second they took real games and gave it to her

[@tedblack8361]

It says in the credits its based on the Walter Tevis novel. And "they" were Bruce Pandolfini and Gary Kasparov, the chess games and positions were realistic and top notch, you should rejoice that the chess was treated with the respect it deserves! And I am not quite sure why you are so anti womens chess. Its a story, it was entertaining, and it promotes chess, whats wrong with that?