The Queen’s Gambit has been conquering Netflix viewing records much like its protagonist, a chess player named Beth Harmon, conquers the chess world. The story is gripping and inspiring. The chess content has been expertly curated, which is pretty rare for a piece of popular entertainment about chess. Nevertheless, one aspect of the show is wildly unrealistic, as Monica Hesse, writing in the Washington Post, and Dylan Loeb McClain, writing in the New York Times, have pointed out: The men Harmon encounters are largely supportive of her chess career.
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