English Chess Forum

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:08 am

Having now seen the whole thing, my opinion is very much that it's a lot better show when it centres on the characters rather than the chess.

Even so, its portrayal of actual chess play is still well above average - low bar though that may be.

Not surprised that it has started to garner awards.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 3:04 pm

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:08 am

Having now seen the whole thing, my opinion is very much that it's a lot better show when it centres on the characters rather than the chess.

Even so, its portrayal of actual chess play is still well above average - low bar though that may be.

Mmm, I think that's true as far as the body language is concerned. Other stuff, not so much.

I'm pleased for Taylor-Joy, immense performance. (Though Marielle Heller might be the best thing in it.)

I gather Taylor-Joy has British citizenship and was here from age 6 (having be born in the US and brought up in Argentina until then); would be good to see her as ECF President

What, and lose the guy who says there's no sexism in chess?

see above, Chess.com's report on the 'Queens Gambit' and the Golden Globes.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/golden- ... ens-gambit

"I love chess! I've had to pick up new skills for the movies that I've been doing,
so I'm looking forward to having some time off so I can get back to chess,"
Taylor-Joy said in an interview after winning the award."

(still not seen it.)

Also now in the Daily Mail
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ambit.html
A number of inaccuracies.

I have to admit that the main thing I disliked about the Queen's Gambit was its conflation of real players with fictitious ones. Generally they got away with it as the names mentioned were historic (at the time the series was set). By contrast Nona Gaprindashvilli would have been a contemporary of Beth Harmon and referencing her in context was a bit jarring. It's a poor reflection on Netflix that they can't just remove the line.

Andrew Zigmond wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:03 pm

By contrast Nona Gaprindashvilli would have been a contemporary of Beth Harmon and referencing her in context was a bit jarring. It's a poor reflection on Netflix that they can't just remove the line.

By and large the Soviet women of that era didn't play men in tournaments. Nona was an exception by virtue of being allowed to travel to the west. West European and American top women players of that era would not have been much more than 2000 standard. Even as late as 1989, Campo used the rather feeble excuse that many players only took part in Women only tournaments to justify knocking Susan Polgar off the top rating spot by adding 100 to all other women players.

John mentioned back in December 2020 that Nona was not pleased.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5043&p=257267&hilit ... li#p257246

a few posts later I added what the book says about Nona;

""She [Beth Harmon] was not an important player by their standards; the only unusual thing about her was her sex, and even that
wasn’t unique in Russia. There was Nona Gaprindashvili, not up to the level of this tournament, but a player who had met all these
Russian grandmasters many times before. Laev would be expecting an easy win."

(page numbers will differ from edition to edition.)

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:13 pm

Andrew Zigmond wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:03 pm

By contrast Nona Gaprindashvilli would have been a contemporary of Beth Harmon and referencing her in context was a bit jarring. It's a poor reflection on Netflix that they can't just remove the line.

By and large the Soviet women of that era didn't play men in tournaments. Nona was an exception by virtue of being allowed to travel to the west. West European and American top women players of that era would not have been much more than 2000 standard. Even as late as 1989, Campo used the rather feeble excuse that many players only took part in Women only tournaments to justify knocking Susan Polgar off the top rating spot by adding 100 to all other women players.

Historically that *was* highly true though, to an extent we might now find surprising.

Of course, de facto demoting the Polgars (IIRC it was all three, not just SP) was maybe another matter.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:26 am

Also now in the Daily Mail
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ambit.html
A number of inaccuracies.

I think the Daily Mail article is just repeating inaccuracies and omissions in her submission to the court. e.g. that she played Viswanathan Anand before he was born and that she was world senior champion several times (without mentioning that it was senior woman world champion).

Who's heard of Rudolf Servaty? The court papers say he was either a highly ranked player or a grandmaster. He wasn't the latter. Perhaps he was of a comparable standard to Mardle, N. Littlewood, Lee and Hindle, all of whom the court papers say were also highly ranked players.

I've heard of him, but only because of the miniature Nona won when they played each other.

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 17, 2021 2:59 pm

Who's heard of Rudolf Servaty? The court papers say he was either a highly ranked player or a grandmaster. He wasn't the latter. Perhaps he was of a comparable standard to Mardle, N. Littlewood, Lee and Hindle, all of whom the court papers say were also highly ranked players.

I played and lost to him at a tournament in Germany nearly thirty years ago. I think we had been joint leaders after five rounds. FM standard at the time perhaps. He may even have reached the 2300 rating but not applied for the title.

I imagine the games against British players had been at Hastings. Did she always play in the Premier, or was there an appearance in the Challengers?

BBC now has it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58600453

I assume the photo of Nona at "London 1964" is actually Hastings 1964-65, where she did play...