The Queen's Gambit

[King Bob]

Personally I think Harry Potter is more Wizard of Earthsea mixed with Dickens. She certainly took a lead from Dickens in creating character names.

Since CF brings up puzzles, I love the crossword puzzle (NY Times) and they also have a good game called Spelling Bee. Sudoku is entertaining too. I have an old chess game on my Gameboy, but I really only play the mini-games and puzzles; I've only played games against the computer a couple of times, and was trounced. Incidentally it has the "Searching for Bobby Fisher" guy in it. He pops up to give instructions and encouragement.

[Drunk Monk]

There's an active leader board that shows the current highest score, and it gets reset each hour.  There have been times when I've been at the top, but only briefly, as I happened to finish my session just after the top of the hour.  

TELEVISION
Despite Huge Success, Netflix's Queen's Gambit Has Had Negative Impact On Chess World

• • CARLIE HOKE
    

PUBLISHED: DEC. 14. 2020 12:02 PM
It has only been two months since Netflix released [i]The Queen’s Gambit[/i], a coming-of-age story about an orphaned chess prodigy, and the miniseries has been a huge success. The limited series has also had some serious impact on the chess world, although not all of it has been positive.

The overwhelming success and reception of [i]The Queen’s Gambit[/i] has brought attention to the less popular and more intellectual sport of chess. Taking place in the Cold War era, an exciting time in the chess world, [i]The Queen’s Gambit[/i] acts as a sort of time capsule for viewers. The miniseries brings a compelling personality to chess by focusing on gender issues in the sport, relations between the Soviet Union and US players, and what addiction could look like for players in the 50s.

While the new interest in chess is a definite positive, the large amount of people flocking to the sport has a downside: cheating. According to Business Insider, there has been a huge spike in cheating on chess.com.

Chess.com is an online chess server, forum, and news site with now over 40 million users. Since the release of Queen’s Gambit, sign-ups for the site are at record-setting numbers. You can always count on a good thing getting messed up, though! Some of these sign-ups, it would seem, are bad seeds. In the month of November alone the site has had to close well over 18,000 accounts due to violations relating to cheating.



It may seem odd to associate chess with cheating, and in the world of [i]The Queen’s Gambit[/i] it would definitely be a difficult feat to pull off. Surrounded by spectators, other players, and at least one overseeing official, cheating in a live tournament would almost be more difficult than winning the match. Although it has occurred in live matches, cheating online on a platform like chess.com is apparently a lot more common.

Why cheat, though? What do players have to gain? Quite a lot, actually. While there are quite large prizes for winners and runner-ups of tournaments, there may be one thing worth more than any amount of prize money: notoriety. One thing viewers learn about the sport of chess from Netflix's [i]Queen’s Gambit[/i] is that the title of Grandmaster and being the best is a huge driving force for competitors in the sport, and can sometimes be seen as an addiction.

Platforms like chess.com who make chess easily accessible to players via the internet are taking steps to combat those with bad intentions. The sites use algorithms to determine who is cheating, and when a player is deviating from their normal practices - in other words, the internet can tell when someone is acting funny!

Hopefully, they will continue to develop ways to weed out the bad seeds so the sport can continue to be enjoyed by new players. The sport is continuing to grow in popularity, and with the possibility -- or at least hope --for a second season for [i]The Queen’s Gambit,[/i] we can hope for another serge in new players in the future. For now, you can stay on top of everything soon-to-come to Netflix by checking out our updated schedule.

Cheaters, huh?

cf you are so busted.

---

Incidentally it has the "Searching for Bobby Fisher" guy in it. He pops up to give instructions and encouragement.

You mean Josh Waitzken (sp?) I know him. We met through the now defunct Hip Hop Chess Federation, which was founded by my friend Adisa, who recently moved from Fremont to the UK. It was through the HHCF where I sat on a panel with RZA once, which was dumb because it is impossible to get a word in with a rapper of his caliber. Josh was also a Tai Chi Push Hands champ. Now he's doing BJJ (or as I like to say BiJayJay - rhymes with vajayjay). We met a few times and I ran a story or two on Josh. Nice guy. Brilliant. Very handsome too. A female reporter I tasked to cover him poached a shirtless pic of him for her screen saver. I'm not jealous at all.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Finished it. Shows with a protag with addiction issues are not fun for me, so it took me a while to get through this. It was stylish as hell and DM is right about Harmon’s peepers. Total anime eyes.

Chess never did it for me; I’ve tried a couple times, but I’m a basic “search & destroy” player and that = sucking at it.

I don’t like to play board games, either. I’m very competitive and it takes an effort to enjoy losing.

[thatguy]

...and mate.

—tg

[King Bob]

DM-

Yes, it is Josh Waitzkin. The game is called Chessmaster: The Art of Learning. It's an very old Nintendo DS game so he's a bit jerky onscreen, but since the main focus is just the chessboard that doesn't matter much. He's on the other screen than the main game. He also wrote a book called The Art of Learning, which is apparently about strategies for learning, and partly also about his chess experiences and subsequent switch to martial arts. I know I've seen the book, and I think I may have even read it, but if I did I remember nothing.

[Drunk Monk]

Yep. Thinking about Josh is a major flashback for me...back to 2007. Read this: http://www.kungfumagazine.com/index.php?...rticle=741.

[cranefly]

I recall copyediting a couple pieces involving Josh and being very impressed, thinking he must have something very special going on in his brain, a correlation of chess and the martial arts -- which I guess was the whole point of DM's thesis.

[Drunk Monk]

spoiler alert