‘Queen’s Gambit’ megahit is built on Lexington roots Chuck Stinnett, Special to The Gleaner
Bingeing on streaming TV shows became the national pastime during the ongoing pandemic, and nothing hit it out of the park like Netflix’s “The Queen Gambit,” a period drama about a girl chess prodigy named Beth Harmon.
It premiered in late October; within a month, it had become Netflix’s most-watched scripted miniseries ever with 62 million viewers.
The story opens in 1950s and 60s Lexington, Kentucky, where author Walter Tevis who wrote the novel the series is based on lived during that era.
Lexingtonians of a certain age instantly recognized the real-life local establishments peppered into the story: Ben Snyder Department Store on Main Street, where young Beth and her adoptive mother shopped. The old Henry Clay High School on East Main, site of some of the show’s chess tournaments. New Circle Road and the Chevy Chase neighborhood.