For the streaming platform, green-lighting the must-see show was a gambit that definitely paid off. After the first season of The Queen’s Gambit was released on October 23, chess journalist Tarjei J. Svenson tweeted November 14 that it had grown to become Netflix’s most-watched series worldwide. But how much of the show’s intensely captivating storyline and realistic depiction of 1960s chess is actually real? Here’s everything we know about which parts of The Queen’s Gambit happened in real life—and how the series conjured up its hyper-accurate authenticity.
Is The Queen’s Gambit based on a true story?
Let’s say it’s less “based on a true story” and more “inspired by actual events.” The source material for The Queen’s Gambit is a 1983 novel of the same name written by Walter Tevis. (His two most famous novels, The HustlerandThe Color of Money, were likewise adapted for the screen—and similarly set in a high-stakes, old-school gaming world of pool.) Tevis himself was a longtime amateur chess player, which explains why the game scenes feel so lifelike, but he also explicitly stated in the book’s author’s note, “The Queen’s Gambit is a work of fiction.” However, certain chess games in the series are clearly based on specific competitions that occurred in real life. For example, former New York Times chess columnist Dylan Loeb McClain claims that when lead character Beth wins the Kentucky state title, it echoes a real-life match that occurred in 1955 in Latvia.
Who was Beth Harmon based on?
McClain also says that Beth appears to be based on the late, legendary American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer. Like Fischer in real life, the socially awkward Beth becomes a chess champion while still a teenager, wins the U.S. chess championship in 1967 and teaches herself Russian as she prepares to face off against opponents from behind the Iron Curtain. A big difference between the fictitious Beth and the real-life Fischer? The latter infamously said in an early-1960s interview that women are inherently bad at chess. “The women aren’t very good players,” Fischer insisted. “They’re terrible chess players. I mean, some are better than others…I guess they’re just not so smart.”
Is Bobby Fischer in The Queen’s Gambit?
There’s no character by the name of Bobby Fischer in the novel or the series. In his author’s note for The Queen’s Gambit, Tevis wrote, “The superb chess of Grandmasters Robert Fischer, Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov has been a source of delight to players like myself for years…however, it seemed prudent to omit them from the cast of characters.”
Who is the actress who plays Beth in The Queen’s Gambit?
Taylor-Joy was probably best known pre-Queen’s Gambit for playing the title role in the 2020 theatrical remake of Emma. That puts her in good company, since the two previous adaptations of Jane Austen’s classic 1815 novel (which, strangely, both came out in 1996) starred Hollywood A-listers Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale. The 24-year-old Taylor-Joy got her first big break with the recurring role of Cassandra on the BBC series Atlantis; she also appeared in six episodes of Peaky Blinders as Gina Gray.
How to watch The Queen’s Gambit
All seven episodes of the first season of The Queen’s Gambit are available to stream now on Netflix. Next, watch The Crown Season 4!
