It is through Beth’s effortless global defeats of men twice her age that her prestige and celebrity grow, in some cases garnering attention and fondness from her challengers. Wheatley (Marielle Heller), who is entranced by the profitability of her daughter’s natural talent and the prospect of replacing her lonely life in suburbia for one of luxury. She is accompanied by her alcoholic adoptive mother Mrs. Quickly, but not surprisingly, her prowess as a chess player increases, eventually allowing her to join the international chess circuit as a teenager. She begins her story in the late 1950s as a nine-year-old Kentucky orphan who is exposed to the intricacies of chess through her orphanage’s custodian (Bill Camp). When audiences first meet Beth, however, her life is void of allure. Despite being centered around an occasionally dull game, “The Queen’s Gambit” is unfailingly thrilling, endearing, smart, and - somehow - a bit sexy.

Taylor-Joy is supported by a stellar cast whose refined performances and superb chemistry present a convincing look into the 1960s chess scene. Adapted from Walter Tevis’ 1983 bildungsroman of the same name, the show is not a treacly melodrama instead, it is a reinvigorated variation of a sports narrative, the sport being chess and the athlete being fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon (embodied by the exceptional Anya Taylor-Joy). French artist-provocateur turned semi-professional chess player Marcel Duchamp once remarked that “while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.” If the imaginative and perceptive protagonist of Netflix’s new seven-part miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit” is any indication, American writer, director, and producer Scott Frank and co-creator Allan Scott share Duchamp’s sentiments.

How to play the queens gambit