The Queen’s Gambit. The good, the fascinating, and the ugly.

The first time I watched the Queen's Gambit, I enjoyed it like most of the world did. I read the reviews like other fans. The second time I watched it, I did something I had never done while watching a show before. I took out a piece of paper and started taking notes, of stuff. And then I typed it, and then I typed more. So here it is, my first Medium article. The Queen’s Gambit, The good, the fascinating, and the ugly. Hope you enjoy the read.

The good

Something most people noticed early on is that the set designers like to play around with the patterns and colours of the set to convey meanings, one of the most obvious ones was how Beth’s clothes resembled a chessboard most of the time with their checkered patterns. And in the last episode when Beth was battling for the tournament of her life in Russia, a checkered pattern coat with the collar literally tied around her neck. But in the last scene, she was the white queen, finally free of the battle and the victor.

Now another thing that caught my eye in the second watch was another pattern that kept repeating in the scenes.

Beth is addicted to many things, with the number one addiction of her life being the green pills. In the first scenes when she enters the orphanage, the place she got her addiction from, her dress is pale green and the principal’s dress is dark green, like the pills.

The first time she’s going to take the pills and asks what they are, everything is a combination of white and dark green in the shots containing her, her dress, the entire background. The pills' colour combination appears many times in the orphanage, even Mr. Sanible’s desk is green. Showing how her life will be tangled with these pills as her story builds up and moves forward.

In the future, both times Beth goes rock bottom with her addiction, the colours re-appear in her outfits.

More Good

Moving forward. Another well thought out scene is when the reporter asks Beth if she saw the king and queen as a mother and father, showing how oblivious an ordinary person would think of the troubles of a child who has lost her parents.

Then Beth, tells her that it was the board she noticed first and what she liked about it was that it was a small and controllable world, with her decisions moving it forward. Indicating how the uncertainties of events in her life had actually affected her.

The Fascinating

My most personal favourite part of the series.

Beth joins the Apple Pies for a night at Margaret’s house, who asks her if she has met any boys or anything. The scene proceeds into Beth stealing a bottle of alcohol from the house and going back home. There, the song is still playing “You’re the one that I’m dreaming of, baby you’re the one that I love”. While Beth lays drunk on the bed, the shadow of the queen piece on the ceiling starts to lay over her until the shadow of the crown of the queen is on top of her head (in harmony with the final scene where Beth’s outfit resembled the White Queen). A perfect summary of what Beth’s personal life will have for us as we keep going forward in the story.

In my mind, this scene is also teasing the sexual/love life topic which was discussed in the previous scenes at Margaret’s. As in the exact next scene, Beth appears in a new style looking more grown-up and like a “woman”.

Benny Watts

Now let’s talk about Benny Watts, one of my favourite characters, well I guess most people’s. The first thing I missed the first time was how Alma mistook Benny’s name for “Bobby”. Hinting how his character is based on Bobby Fischer. This one was cute.

Speaking of Benny, here’s something I didn’t pick up through the storyline the first time I watched the show and was left with a question. “Where did all of Benny’s money go really?”. Well, As he pushes Beth to battle her alcoholism and drug addiction, he himself is having a little addiction of his own, gambling.

When Beth asks him if he gambled all his money away, it took me a second watch to know for sure that the answer was yes. You can see it in his behaviour over speed chess and some hints in his dialogues, and how he keeps going until the shortage of money pushes for the betting to stop. I bet gambling has a lot to do with the fact that he’s not as rich as he should be. Next to the fact that also, he doesn’t attend every chess tournament with a prize that he finds as Beth does.

A Bit of Irony

Beth is shocked by the fact that Borgov has agents covering him in his trip to the US, she and her friends talked about it like it was a crazy thing. And then, she had the same done to her in her trip to Russia by the US government. The irony.

The Ugly

This part of the storyline was perhaps the only one that bothered me.

Cleo.

She’s complicated, doesn’t like her life obviously, has a thing for Benny, and in general, seems to have a thing for smart people. She talks over and over about how girls in her profession are too shallow and have no talent, so much that one must imagine that’s how she kind of feels about herself. And she’s smart enough to be bothered by it.

Now what does she mean to the storyline? she shows up one night, talks to Beth a bit, seems nice, leaves. And then shows up again to cause a series of events that not only lead to Beth losing her big match, but also go rock bottom with her addiction.

Now I don’t believe that was unintentional, she’s too smart for unintentional. She knows taking Beth out for drinking and partying that night is a bad idea. So why did she do it? envy of Beth’s “talent”? or because of Benny? Back at the bar, she asks Beth if she liked f***ing Benny and when Beth answered “sometimes” she replies “how romantic” with a bitter tone.

Or maybe it was a combination of both those feelings? I’m glad they did not go further in the love triangle if there was any, it would not have been in style with the rest of the story. However, I would have appreciated it more if her part in the storyline was a bit more clear, and did not leave us with a “what just happened?” at the end.

The Beautiful

Why did Beth get out of the car?

For me, this final scene was based on a sentence Beth said in her first interview “Chess isn’t always competitive, chess can be, beautiful” And I believe, that the first time she saw the crowd of elder people playing in the park that’s what she saw. Playing chess for the beauty, not for competition.

And so, after she had won her final match, the biggest competition of her life and was finally the winner she thrived to be. She went back to the park, to visit the beautiful side of chess that she had long forgotten, and to sit down and play with a man that reminded her of her dear Mr. Scheibel. Of how the first matches she ever played with him weren’t for prizes and trophies, but because she liked it.

She knows she’s not alone in the world, her friends got her back. She’s not worried about not being the best anymore, she is. She’s finally free. No wonder Anya cried so much when they filmed the ending, I cried while watching it too.