What is the story that the mini-series tells us?

After the tragic death of her mother, Beth Harmon is orphaned at the age of nine. She is sent to an orphanage. In that institution she receives a conservative education and hopes that one day she can be adopted. She is different from the others, soon she will be interested in chess, when she sees the school's janitor, Mr. Shaibel, playing in the basement. Shaibel realizes that the girl is good at chess and will teach her. At the age of 13 she is adopted by the Allstons and Alma Wheatley, the latter a housewife addicted to alcohol. But Beth has only one thing in mind, to become the best chess player in the world. She begins the stormy journey of a chess genius, always on the verge of madness, while at the same time succumbing to addiction to pills and alcohol.

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This story, which is set in the world of chess, has seemed to me to be an exciting mini-series. It is narrated with elegance and intelligence and although the spectator cannot know much about this sport, we will achieve empathy with some characters, we will feel emotion before each victory of Beth Harmon and we will feel hurt by her defeats.

What's so special about these people who are chess champions? How do they reach that level of excellence? Are they very intelligent? Are they happy? In the case of the protagonist of the story, it seems that her genius is linked to madness, between both there is a thin line that separates them. Finding balance will be a constant in Beth's life.

Flashbacks about the death of her mother. That last sentence: close your eyes. It shows us that her mother wasn't right in the head. A math teacher who makes a tragic decision. That memory will haunt Beth for the rest of her life.

Beth's behavior is not at all normal. While other girls her age only think about kissing other boys, about music, about having fun... She seems to live inside her own world, where there is only room for chess pieces. The same ones she saw every night on the roof of the orphanage, under the effects of the pills she was given and on which she would end up depending for many years.

Geniuses also fall in love, unfortunately she will look at the person who can never repay her. Another burden she will have to bear, and that will lead her to experience relationships with other men, but none of them seem capable enough to end up accepting Beth's behavior. Not even among players like her, because Beth only has eyes and a mind for chess.

Beth's obsession, and at the same time her greatest fear, is to face the Russians, specifically Borgov, the world champion. The Russians seem unbeatable in that sport, nobody can defeat them. A fight against the impossible. An orphan, who learned to play with the janitor of the orphanage, a woman, who wants to defeat the Soviet, world champion

The story of the mini-series takes place in the sixties, reflecting all the macho culture that ruled at that time. The best representation of the American woman of that time, we will see it in the character of Alma Wheatley. Who becomes a mother and friend of Beth, a housewife, who is abandoned by her husband, but who has spent her entire life repressing what could have been. With a talent for the piano, she prefers to be a woman dedicated to the home, with an increasingly distant husband, alcohol becomes her faithful companion. It is through Alma that Beth tests her new addiction.

As Beth's fame spreads on the chess circuit, interviews and reports in magazines and newspapers highlight the fact that she is a woman. Something that will cause her discomfort. Beth only wants to be a chess champion, which should also be important for the media, but they only want to emphasize the fact that she is a woman.

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The whole story told by the Queen's Gambit is fictional. Beth Harmon did not exist. But the character is inspired by other real characters.

Walter Tevis is the writer of the novel with the same title and on which the mini-series is based. When his novel was published, the writer said that one of the people he was most inspired by was Bobby Fischer, the American chess genius, grandmaster of this sport, who got the most important title in the world, when he defeated the Soviet Boris Spasski.

The confrontation between these two brilliant chess minds took place in Iceland in 1972 and was called the Match of the Century. It was the first time an American managed to become champion and the one that ended the 24 years of Soviet domination in chess championships.

The writer greatly admired Fisher, as well as other great chess champions. Through his novel he makes a story, which reflects in a fictitious way the life of a chess champion. The author was addicted, and it was something he added to the character, a way of reflecting a part of himself through the main character.

Tevis died of lung cancer in 1984, he was a successful writer and other novels and stories of his authorship have been adapted for film and television. The Color of Money was made into a movie by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and The Man Who Fell to Earth has had a couple of adaptations, one of them on the big screen, directed by Nicolas Roeg

The mini series has been created and directed by Scott Frank and Allan Scott. The script has been entirely in charge of Scott Frank, who debuted as a director in 2007 with the excellent film The Lookout with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the main character. It has been nominated twice for an Oscar as best adapted script by the films Out of Sight and Logan. He is an excellent filmmaker and screenwriter. I recommend that you also see his other mini-series, which he wrote and directed, the brilliant western Godless.

The setting, costumes and photography are of great quality. Steven Meizler is the director of photography and the music for the mini-series was provided by Carlos Rafael Rivera, who has already worked with Scott Frank on other productions. They all do a fascinating job, with the necessary elegance, making the world of chess players seem fascinating.

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All the protagonism and weight of the story, falls on the character of Beth Harmon, who is masterfully played by an incredible Anya Taylor-Joy, whose magnetism in each scene, left me hypnotized. She makes the character her own, with every gesture and look, captivating us until the end.

Anya Taylor-Joy had already made it clear that she would be a powerful actress, when we saw her in The Witch, after that film, her career is on the right track. Although most of the audience saw her, it was "Split" by M. Night Shyamalan, with whom she would repeat in "Glass". This year also saw the premiere of Emma, the adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. But those of us who follow the career of this young actress, want to see her as the young Imperator Furious, in the prequel that George Miller is preparing, about the character that I play Charlize Theron in Mad Max Fury Road.

In the rest of the cast there are very well known actors and all of them are perfect in their characters. The actor Harry Melling, better known for having played Harry Potter's cousin years ago and whom I saw a few weeks ago in the film The Devil all the Time, plays Harry Beltik, the first great chess player that Beth will have to defeat. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd plays D.L. Twones, another player and Beth's impossible love. Thomas Brodie-Sangster, best known for the Game of Thrones and the Runner of the Labyrinth saga, plays champion Banny Watts. Veteran actor Bill Camp is in charge of bringing to life Mr. Sheibel, the janitor of the orphanage and Beth?s first chess master. Marcin Dorocinski plays the world champion Burog, the Soviet, the best chess player, impossible to beat. Marielle Heller, who is also director and writer, plays Alma, the woman who will adopt Beth and be her support for a while. And finally, a mention to the girl Isla Johnston who is excellent as Beth Harmon in her childhood.

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