Queens Gambit and Netflix

[IM Jack Rudd]

I suggest you take a day off, MJ.

[John Upham]

I need your advice...

I'd like to recommend Queen's Gambit to my junior students most of whom are of primary school age.

Are there are moments that parents should be aware of whilst their children are watching?

As you can guess, I've struggled to find the time to watch it but hope to do so.

[John Upham]

On this subject Ray has issued forth

[J T Melsom]

The Queens Gambit has a 15 certificate. You may find the parental guide from IMDb useful. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10048342/p ... tt_stry_pg

[Nick Grey]

We watched the 1st episode. Not suitable for children.

[Wadih Khoury]

It's actually a bit frustrating: apart from a 2 minute sequence in that first episode (and maybe 2 or 3 other times where a certain word is uttered), the entire series is ok for secondary children. For primary children it depends on parents' tolerance to alcohol and medication abuse and the odd scene or two in bed (nothing graphical).

[Paul Robert Jackson]

Series discussed on Breakfast TV this morning (Tuesday).
Suitability for younger children mentioned.

[Jon Mahony]

Series discussed on Breakfast TV this morning (Tuesday).
Suitability for younger children mentioned.

There were a few unsavoury references to under age sex mentioned in the novel - Jolene and the orderly Fergusson were described as "being kind to each other" and at one point Beth and Jolene have a sexual encounter. Thankfully the series decided to totally skip that out and so yes I'd say the Netflix series is fine, a few mild swear words here and there but I doubt anything which isn't said with regularity in the playground these days.

[John Sellen]

High praise for the Queens Gambit on Twitter

Hikaru Nakamura
@GMHikaru
#QueensGambit is, without a doubt, the best portrayal of both the chess world and game that I have ever seen.
4:45 am · 11 Nov 2020·Twitter Web App

[Joey Stewart]

I would probably err on the side of No when it comes to suitability for younger children - The sex and swearing might be "mild" by modern standards and possibly more liberal parents might think it is within acceptable boundaries but the drug and alcohol addiction angle is a pretty major part of the story and I just think it is not a subject that they should really be exposed to at that age.

[Andrew Zigmond]

I need your advice...

I'd like to recommend Queen's Gambit to my junior students most of whom are of primary school age.

Are there are moments that parents should be aware of whilst their children are watching?

As you can guess, I've struggled to find the time to watch it but hope to do so.

To echo the comments above, unfortunately The Queen's Gambit is completely unsuitable for young children.

[Jon Mahony]

Maybe you are right, I suppose in hindsight when I was 13 my favourite thing was acquiring any slasher film I could lay my hands on, on VHS. Didn't do me any harm like... now where's my hockey mask

In a totally unrelated topic I've just realised the bloke who plays Benny Watt's is the odd looking little kid from Love Actually, Liam Neesons's son in the film, and now I feel very old because I was about 20 when that came out.

[Gordon Morse]

"The Queen's Gambit" breaks a Netflix record:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 60801.html

We watched and enjoyed "The Queen's Gambit" so the Netflix app recommended "The Crown" to us - the royal connection no doubt. "The Crown" is very enjoyable too and would doubtless have boosted its audience with a few chess scenes!

[Roland Kensdale]

Interesting discussion with Jonathan Rowson: https://en.chessbase.com/post/jonathan- ... n-s-gambit

He has also created a 35 minute video which I haven't watched yet: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XfcP-pyfw2s

[MJMcCready]

I'm very disappointed by the reaction to it in the chess world. It seems as though people just want to jump on the bandwagon for their own intent and purposes. Since chess players are not as deplorable as groupies nor born again christians, both also very good at just jumping on the bandwagon with language which is at its best grandiloquent, it's rather sad considering chess is supposed to be an intellectual pursuit. The manner in which chess is portrayed is nauseating, the prominence of gauging reactions over moves played at best laughable. It's not a very realistic depiction of OTB chess at all and the reaction to it is, overall, meek indeed. It doesn't look as though it was written for chess players which makes its reception in the chess world rather perplexing. I get the impression that no one dares say what they really think because they wont get so many likes or something.