The Queen's Gambit (2020)

The Queen’s Gambit follows Beth Harmon, an introverted nine-year-old orphan in 1960s America who discovers chess and quickly becomes a prodigy. Taught by the orphanage janitor, Beth’s quiet life transforms as she rises through the competitive chess world—by her teens she’s contending for national and international titles. As her skill and fame grow, so do her loneliness and struggles with addiction, turning a triumphal sports story into a haunting psychological drama about talent, control, and self-destruction. Based on Walter Tevis’s novel, the series mixes tense, beautifully staged chess matches with rich period detail, stylish cinematography, and a powerful central performance. What you’ll experience: immersive, slow-burning tension as games play out like psychological battles; strong emotional highs and lows as Beth’s brilliance collides with her demons; elegant 1960s production design and pacing that balances suspenseful competition with intimate character study. Even viewers unfamiliar with chess will find the matches gripping, and the show resonates as both a portrait of genius and a meditation on isolation and recovery.

Actors: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chloe Pirrie, Bill Camp

Genre: Drama

8.5 /10 8.5 /10