There are always many different ways to watch a series and a show, aren’t there my friend?

You might watch passively, or with an intent, or maybe later something comes and hits you after you’ve had time to reflect on it.

The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix is one of those shows. It’s short, beautifully written and extremely addictive. I know nothing about chess but now I want to start playing! 

CAREFUL - spoiler alert!

Beth Harmon is a genius orphan of a separated couple and becomes the first female chess grandmaster. 

This one line summarises the plot, but let’s look beyond.

First, her parents split rather violently as her mother suffers from severe depression. Her depression is so deep that she actually commits suicide in a car accident with Beth in the car. This can be pretty traumatic for a child; I think we will all agree. 

Just to add to the situation, as her dad did not recognise her, Beth becomes an orphan. 

In the orphanage she gets hooked on Xanzolam, likely a fictional version of Librium, a benzodiazepine sedative similar to Xanax that was commonly prescribed in the 60s. This little girl was literally high as a kite for most of her youth!

So let’s rewind, an abandoned child, an orphan, in car crash seeing her mother kill herself (and almost her too), hooked on pills….

And yet this was also the seed of the greatest opportunity in her life (and why this show is so addictive)!

Serendipity leads her to meet the custodian of the orphanage who starts to teach her chess as she falls in love with it. Even more, she is consumed by it. 

Her genius appears then, alongside her new inner world, and fears. 

I was joking earlier about the drugs but those helped her crack open some of the barriers of her unconscious. Would have she become this grandmaster without the drugs? I doubt it but am happy to debate. 

By the way, please don’t think that I am promoting using drugs to find your superpower! Well ….actually I could, as more and more research and studies demonstrate that drugs such as LSD or MDMA — used in very specific ways — open routes to the psyche that are beneficial for our health and the balance of our minds. I will let you do your own research and come to your own conclusions. 

So, yes, Beth is gifted and everything comes easy to her until she reaches the ceiling of who she is… or who she has been thought to be should I say. When this arrives, it hurts as she doesn’t understand what’s happening: “What? a ceiling to me the genius? I never had to work to reach this point, why can’t I keep going?” 

Why? Because your ceiling is where your beliefs leave you!

Why? Because discipline and hard work will eat skills for breakfast! There is only so far one can go without hard work!

What is amazing in here is her journey. She did not want the burden, she did not want that gift, and her beliefs and stories tried to keep her away from it (that reminds me of Amy Winehouse (RIP)).

Toward the end she is being tempted to go back to her old self with drinking, but KNOWS now how to tame her gremlins, how to talk to her inner voice, whatever name you want to give it.

She faced it and won!

Oh and also I should say that she is the only women in the clearly misogynistic world of chess! So what is there not to like and admire about Beth?! 

Beth was not given the best hand to start with! Like most of us!

The Queen’s Gambit was an immediate success as we love to see underdogs grinding, fighting and winning (like Rocky!). This gives us our fix of hope. However, when we look back at our lives, we tend to see those characters as totally fictional, and therefore find excuses not to take action.

Well, we couldn’t be more wrong as we all have some Beth in us, but clearly binging Netflix on the sofa is easier and looking at fictional characters is more comforting! So let’s use Beth as example of what’s possible! Let’s stand up tall and grind!

QUESTION…

What do you love above and beyond that will make you go the extra mile, read this extra book, or stay awake that extra hour that will make the difference?