THE Queen’s Gambit has gotten so big that even the world’s top chess player is sitting up and taking notice.
In a rare interview with journalists, world number one Magnus Carlsen told Insider that the show “did chess better” than anyone has ever done before.
In addition, Carlsen observed that the limited series smartly addresses the lingering culture of sexism that exists within the sport.
“In general,” he said, “chess societies have not been very kind to women and girls over the years. Certainly there needs to be a bit of a change of culture."
The 29-year-old Norwegian — currently deep in the Champions Chess Tour — liked how The Queen’s Gambit addressed that, not by sidestepping the issue, but by showing off lead character Beth Harmon’s prodigious woodpushing talent.
Carlsen said: “I love the fact that once Beth started to have results, and once it became clear that she had great ability, there was not a lot of 'I don't think she can be any good because she's a girl.’ "All of that disappeared. I thought it was very, very pleasing that she was judged by her ability."
The Netflix show, released only last October 23, has become one of the planet’s biggest TV series. And doe-eyed Beth Harmon — played with a fierce intensity by rising star Anya Taylor-Joy — is quickly becoming the global face of chess. Even if she is a fictional character.
According to data released by the streaming platform, The Queen’s Gambit was in the Philippines’ top 10 list for over three weeks.
Abroad, it’s made an even bigger impact. It is ranked number one in 63 countries.
In total, since it dropped in late October, more than 62 million households around the world have watched the show, said Netflix, which has normally been recalcitrant in releasing statistics and numbers for its shows.

Judging from recent internet activity outside of Netflix, the show is fueling a renewed interest in chess as well. Worldwide Google searches for “chess” have hit a nine-year peak. Meanwhile, searches for “how to play chess” are also spiking, with search volume this month projected to equal searches back in April 2020 (after global lockdowns forced millions to stay at home) and December 2011 (the year Magnus Carlsen was crowned world number one).
Lichess.org, a free online chess server, also noted the uptick in users ever since the show was released.
In the United States, reported The New York Times’ Marie Fazio, chess set sales rose by 125 percent over the past month.
“More and more people are playing more and more games than ever before in history,” David Llada, a spokesman for the International Chess Federation (or FIDE), said to the Times.
The show’s effects on the sport could be far-reaching, reflected Llada. While he said that it was too soon to measure its full impact, he said that the current interest in the sport matches that of world championship season.
The reason the show is so beloved, even by chess diehards, said Llada, was because it portrayed chess as “nerdy, but also cool and fashionable. It is intensively competitive, but full of interesting, creative and colorful characters.”

As downloads of Chess.com’s app rose over the past month, the popular chess website offered an AI version of Beth Harmon for users to play against. You could match up against four versions of AI Beth, from the precocious eight-year-old who “still falls for traps and doesn't see certain types of tactics”, to the Moscow-bound 20-year-old version, who “aspires to be the youngest World Chess Champion ever.”
The website asked readers: “Do you dare stand in her way?”
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