"What's that
game called?"
"You should be upstairs with the others."
"I don't want
to
be with the others, I want to know what that is you're playing."
"It's called chess."
Chess is one of the oldest games in the world that is still played today, with early variations
of the game dating as far back as 7th century India.
Outliving empires, plague and war and evolving into the game we know today.
64 squares, 32 pieces and 2 players each with a simple task, to checkmate their opponent's
king.
But within those 64 squares is an entire world, Anatoly Karpov, described chess as "everything,
art, science, and sport."
Chess is what's known as a game of "perfect information", meaning that all information
is available to both players simultaneously.
It's not like poker with hidden cards, or something like a real time strategy game with
fog of war; every move happens on the board for both players to see, which becomes a core
concept to the entire game as both players must consider not just their own move, but
the move of their opponent.
As a result the winner is simply the one that played better chess, unlike many other board
games that use cards or dice, elements of random chance; chess is purely about strategy.
I think it's why it's is more easily fitting of the categorization of "sport" than something
like say, Monopoly.
When you sit down to play, it's just you and the board.
You can't rely on a lucky draw or roll to save you.
At the game's higher levels, this means being able to recall tens of thousands of positions,
calculating combinations that span multiple moves, with the knowledge that even the smallest
inaccuracy can cost you the game.
It's brutal, it's mentally exhausting, and takes incredible endurance to play well.
"It's been five hours, perhaps we should adjourn now."
Imagine doing the most intense mental exercise of your life for five hours without a proper
break, where one single miniscule mistake can end it all.
It's the mental equivalent of free solo rock climbing, with no safety net to catch you
if you fall.
It's hard to describe to those who haven't played the feeling of absolute triumph after
securing a win, as well as the unfathomable devastation when you lose.
Because it's a game that is entirely in your hands.
Your fate isn't determined by weather or the roll of a die, it's determined by skill alone,
every win or loss is yours to accept.
"It's an entire world of just 64 squares, I can control it, dominate it, and if I get
hurt I only have myself to blame."
The board is perfectly symmetrical, each player has the exact same pieces to work with, and
the alternating sequential move order gives both players equal opportunities to win the
game.
And due to the fact that it's a game played over a board, and not on a field for example,
everyone can have the same chance to succeed.
Being taller or stronger or heavier or lighter, being male or female, old or young, none of
it effects your abilities as a chess player; something that's rare in the world of competitive
sports.
When you're dealing with a mostly physical matchup, it's not always easy to know who
should be allowed to compete with who, and in some cases it would obviously be unethical.
But because chess is pure strategy, the physical component, the actual physical movement of
the pieces is irrelevant, if you can play the game in your mind or through notation,
it still counts as playing the game.
People with a physical handicap or someone who is blind or deaf would still be able to
compete at the same level as everyone else without compromise.
In that way, I think chess is arguably the most accessible competitive sport in existence,
it's certainly the most fair, and also the one with the most potential for diversity,
because truly anyone can win it all.
While Beth is initially met with judgement and skepticism from those around her when
she starts showing interest in chess, her gender certainly playing a factor in that
initial bias.
"Girls don't play chess."
Everyone quickly changes their tune once they see her play.
Because of the natural equity and fairness of chess, there's really no disputing the
results.
In her first tournament, she defeated every opponent she faced and went on to win first
place despite going in without a rating or any prior tournament experience, and the thing
is, not a single person present cared about the fact that she was a girl.
The only people that ever seem to make a fuss about her gender are the press who just want
a good story, or some of the more conservative people in her life that exist outside of the
chess community.
Everyone within the community treats her like a rockstar, because frankly, she is.
But it would be nice to see more sports adopt this sort of mentality, I get that it's not
always straightforward but sometimes it is, and I think the rest of the world of sports
could stand to learn something from the openness of chess in general, that brings people from
all over the world together in competition that values sportsmanship and fairness.
Because as Beth pointed out, in chess "if I get hurt I only have myself to blame."
This is true on both sides of the board, at any given position there are moves that could
make or break you.
Those who play the game best can find moves no one else ever would, moves that look like
suicide, like throwing away your Queen to break open the enemy King's defense.
These moves might not be obvious in the heat of the moment, but even a novice at the game
can review a successful combination after the fact and understand why it worked.
It's like Karpov said, chess is a science.
Chess as Science: There are a finite amount of possible moves
given any current position, and an even fewer amount of winning moves, as such there's been
a lot of study into chess theory, which is essentially a scientific collection of data
from previously played games, to break down every possible continuation to find what lines
work best for each player.
Just like music theory concerns itself with finding which combination of frequencies sound
aesthetically pleasing and which do not, chess theory concerns itself with finding combinations
of moves that work, or don't.
The Scholar's Mate for example is a common opening trap, and likely one of the first
you'll encounter when learning to play the game.
"It's called the Scholar's Mate".
It's a four move checkmate that happens when White attacks the f7 square with both Queen
and Bishop, provided Black fails to adequately defend it.
It's a trap that's easy to fall into when you're first learning, but one that's easy
to avoid with some practice.
The French defense, the Scandinavian, the Sicilian, these are all well known effective
openings to counter the Scholar's Mate.
Opening combinations that have been tried and tested for centuries by countless players,
to ensure their accuracy.
There are hundreds of different openings most of which have multiple variations within,
and to be able to succeed on the grand stage means being able to recognize as many of them
as possible.
Because one small inaccuracy can sew the seeds of your own defeat, so the more of these positions
you can recognize, the more of the best moves that you can recall in the moment, the better
you'll perform.
Becoming good at chess forces you to become something of a scientist, and we see Beth
read countless chess books written by iconic players both real and fictional to improve
her understanding of theory, she's constantly at the board practicing different lines and
working through ideas with others, to find weaknesses in her strategies, and even to
learn the specific styles of her more skilled opponents to gain an edge.
Chess after all, is a game of math, order, and equity.
You move, I move.
So any position can be thoroughly analyzed, and we can explore every contiuation until
we find the winning sequence.
Of course, with each new move comes new potential threats or traps, or weaknesses in your opponents
position that you can exploit, and always more opportunities for variation.
The theorized number of potential unique games of chess range from the astronomical to completely
unfathomable, with Shannon's number suggesting more potential chess games than atoms in the
known universe.
Even more conservative estimates that eliminate nonsensical moves or repeated positions could
never realistically be attained in their entirety.
"If it was, let's say if each player had an average of 3 sensible moves, it would be say
3 to the power 80.
See I can tell you that's roundabout 10 to the power 40.
So now not as large as the number of atoms in the observable universe but still, still
very large though.
If for example everyone in the world paired off, and they had to play a game of chess
every day, it would still take you trillions and trillions of years to play them all.
Or if you think about it another way, if we consider all games of chess that have ever
been played in history, then that is only a tiny fraction of all the possible games
of chess there are to play."
That's why even in a game that's existed for millennia, a game that has reached every part
of the globe, people are still making new discoveries.
In every tournament, in every match there is the possibility and likelihood that we
will see a game that's never been played before, the uncharted waters of the mid and endgame
where theory still has yet to reach.
Theory that's collectively been added to by millions of people across dozens of nations
and hundreds of years, and we can still be surprised.
I think that's where chess becomes art.
Chess as Art: "Chess doesn't always have to be competitive."
"You play to win."
"Yes, but it can also be...beautiful."
When all of the data and the hard science falls away and you're left with nothing but
pure intuition.
"You didn't have to think very long on this move."
"No, because I knew it should be working."
The moves that the greatest chess players can find in those intense moments can reverberate
around the world, because finding the best move in those critical positions is like tapping
into some inherent higher truth that was always there if not directly evident.
There's this uncanny moment of revelation when it all starts to come together, once
you see the intention behind a move.
"Do you see it now?
Or should we finish this on the board?"
"Son of a bitch."
It can truly be awe inspiring, and even beautiful, it's why chess has captivated so many over
the generations.
A brilliant combination is like a beautiful melody, or a great story, and every player
develops their own unique artistic approach to the game.
You can look at a game between two chess legends and discern who's who just by looking at how
they play.
Tal with his aggressive attacks, Fischer with his pinpoint accuracy, Kasparov and his intense
opening preparation.
There are games that are immortalized in history, revisited throughout the generations for their
sheer beauty, like the Opera Game where Paul Morphy gives away ten pawns worth of material
only to deliver a devastating checkmate on d8.
This game was played in 1858, and is still taught today because it instills many of chess's
greatest lessons, like king safety and development, and it's also a great example of how to give
away a material advantage to gain a positional one.
Just like Beth does in her final match with Borgov, that was mostly taken from a real
game between Vassily Ivanchuck and Patrick Wolff, but where that game ended in a draw,
in the show Beth makes a different move that eventually leads to Borgov's resignation,
after a beautiful combination that starts with a Queen sacrifice.
"It's your game."
There's just so much to love about chess, it has a long and rich history, steeped in
culture and even politics, it's given purpose and passion to countless people from all walks
of life, and for several decades now has even been a viable career option, for those good
enough to play at a higher level or those who at least know it well enough to teach
it to others.
Its popularity ebbs and flows, but the game will likely be a staple of human culture as
long as there are still humans to play it, because there's nothing else quite like it.
A competitive sport that's rooted in science and art, that allows entry of participants
regardless of social or economic background or identity politics, that can teach a lot
of valuable lessons about sportsmanship as you'll rarely see the same sort of toxic gloating
that you do in so many other sports, but it also teaches many lessons for life.
Like the importance of thinking through a plan before execution, looking specifically
for any flaws in your idea.
That in life you'll have to make difficult decisions, and anything is better than making
no decision.
It teaches you the value of self analysis, introspection and accountability, and consistently
frames the concept of loss within questioning like "what could I have done differently"
rather than looking for some external force to blame.
It reinforces the notion of considering multiple perspectives, it instills proper time management
skills, and if nothing else is at the least a great mental exercise.
It's a game that rewards diligence rather than luck, intellect rather than genetics,
and can be played by virtually anyone, anywhere; and I'm hardpressed to find any single other
game that offers so much for so little.
You can play chess for free on your phone or computer, or get a proper chess board for
next to nothing, and if you have internet or a library card, the entire collective wisdom
of the chess community is available for you to study completely for free.
And it's refreshing to see a story that truly respects the game and its history.
They had multiple experts consult on the show including the legendary Garry Kasparov himself
to ensure that every board, even ones we only see for the briefest moment in the background,
is still a believable game.
I just loved watching the Queen's Gambit from start to finish, and if you're a fan of chess
or good television in general I highly recommend watching it for yourself, and if this show
has made you at all interested in learning the game there is a ton of incredible chess
content right here on YouTube, multiple websites where you can learn the game for free, and
I think it's something that everyone should at least give a chance at some point in their
lives, because it truly is a great game.