If you’ve found your quarantine comfort withNetflix, you may, like us, be obsessed withThe Queen’s Gambit. This hit series has made chess fashionable again, boosting downloads of chess apps and spurring conversations about sexism in the world of competitive chess.
The Queen’s Gambitstars the incredible, nymph-like Anya Taylor-Joy (who is also amazing inEmma) as Beth Harmon, an orphan and chess prodigy who slowly makes her way to the top of the competitive chess world. And while many of Beth’s co-competitors have犹太姓氏, not much about the show is explicitly Jewish.
And yet, so much about chess, in its modern iteration, can be traced to Jewish players. Plus, so many Jewish players inspired — and are inspired by — this incredibly moving show that’s resonating with chess lovers and chess newbies alike. And because we love to kvell about successful (chess-playing) Jews and share amazing Jewish stories, here are nine Jewish facts related toThe Queen’s Gambit.
1.The show’sCo-Creator，Scott Frank，是犹太人. Frank, a longtime TV and film writer, has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, forOut of Sight和洛根。In his previous show, the Netflix miniseriesGodless, Frankinsertedsome lines from the famed Jewish poet, physician, and philosopherYehuda Halevi.
2.AFP correspondent Deborah Cole revealed that themanor house that stood in for the exterior of Beth’s orphanage has a fascinating and tragic Jewish backstory. The mansion inBerlinonce belonged to the Israels, a Jewish family that started a retail dynasty in the city in the 1740s. This estate, according to Cole, was bought in the mid-19th century by Moritz Israel, who built the villa on the grounds as a wedding present for his son, Richard, and his wife, Bianca.
The Israels were modern, patrons of the arts, and generous with their fortune. But unfortunately, with the rise of Nazism, they were stripped of all their belongings. While some of the couple’s children managed to escape Germany, Richard and Bianca, unfortunately, did not — they were sent toTheresienstadt., where Richard died. Bianca survived the Holocaust.
Fans of The Queen's Gambit, German history aficianados: I went out to Schulzendorf near the new BER airport to find the manor house that stood in for Beth's orphanage in the series. It's an evocative place linked to one of Berlin's most illustrious Jewish families (thread)pic.twitter.com/bIczWCsW4G
— Deborah Cole (@doberah)November 8, 2020
3.The actress who plays Alma, Beth’s adoptive mother, isMarielle Heller, whose father is Jewish. In addition to acting, Heller is an incredibly acclaimed director. Most notably, she directed the Mr. Rogers biographical drama,A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,和moved to Pittsburgh for the project, enrolling her son in the local JCC. Three days after the movie wrapped shooting, the Tree of Life Shooting took place.
“The JCC became kind of Ground Zero for everyone in mourning and it was where a lot of the counseling was happening, gathering was happening. So he got to see that and was a part of that,” Heller told thePittsburgh Post-Gazetteabout her son.
4.In the fifth episode of the show, Harry Beltik talks abouttwo real-life Jewish chess players who played chess with a blindfold: George Koltanowski and Wilhem Steinitz.
Koltanowkski, who was known as Kolty, was born in Antwerp, Belgium, to Polish Jewish parents. Though he died in 2000, Kolty still holds the world’s blindfold record, which he set on September 20, 1937: He played 34 simultaneous chess games while blindfolded! Pretty badass, if you ask us.
As for Steinitz, he was the first official world chess champion, a title he held from 1886 to 1894. Steinitz was born in 1836 in theJewish ghetto布拉格。最年轻的13名儿童和数学Prodigy，Steinitz开始在维也纳理工学院作为学生玩竞争激烈的国际象棋，基本上从未停止过。他搬到了伦敦，然后搬到了美国。他也是一位多产的国际象棋作家和理论家，让我们到了下一个观点......
5.Two Jewish players popularized the Queens Gambit; an opening chess move that’s one of the oldest around. One was Steinitz and the other was Siegbert Tarrasch, a Prussian Jew who was considered one of the best chess players in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as an incredible chess theorist. (He was also a medical doctor!) While Tarrasch converted to Christianity in 1909, and lost a son in WWI, he still facedantisemitismin his native Germany with the rise of Nazism. He died in 1934.
6.Bobby Fischeris undeniably a very loose inspiration behind for the more erratic and dark parts ofThe Queen’s Gambit.国际象棋神童,费舍尔bec时打破了记录ame U.S. Chess Champion at 14 and a Grandmaster at 15.
沃尔特·Teviswho wrote the bookThe Queen’s Gambitis based upon, admitted to being inspired by Fischer’s playing: “The superb chess of Grandmasters Robert Fischer, Boris Spassky, and Anatoly Karpov has been a source of delight to players like myself for years. SinceThe Queen’s Gambitis a work of fiction, however, it seemed prudent to omit them from the cast of characters, if only to prevent contradiction of the record. ”
Fischer is also known for his erratic and reclusive behavior, especially later in life, as well as his overt misogyny, racism, andantisemitism— despite having a Jewish mother.
7.If we had to choose the real-life player who is most similar to the fictional Beth Harmon — minus the pill habit — we’d go withJudit Polgar, who is the daughter of Hungarian Jews.波尔加和她的两个姐妹们接受过训练在家中棋，而这三个成为令人难以置信的国际象棋球员。
Polgar is still considered one of the best female players of all time. She broke Fischer’s own Grandmaster record, becoming a grandmaster at 15 (and 4 months) in 1991. Polgar had a prolific career in professional chess and retired in 2014. Honestly, she’s s so inspiring and impressive that she deserves her own Netflix series.
Polgar recently told theNew York Timesthat she lovedThe Queen’s Gambit和that it gave her a sense of déjà vu, particularly in its later episodes, though she said the lack of sexism in the show did not feel realistic. She said that some men she played disparaged her abilities and made hurtful remarks, and that some were disrespectful when they lost matches to her: “There were opponents who refused to shake hands… There was one who hit his head on the board after he lost.”
8.One such opponent wasGary Kasparov, whose father is Jewish, and who was a consultant onThe Queen’s Gambit. In 1989, hesaid thisabout Polgar: “There is real chess and women’s chess… some people don’t like to hear this but chess doesn’t fit women properly… It’s not for women. Sorry. I think she’s helpless if she has men’s opposition. I think it’s simple logic.”
After many tough games against Kasparov, some even mired with controversy, Polgar finally beat him in 2002 — remind anyone of aTheQueen’s Gambitplot point?
In a recent CNN interview, Kasparov admitted that he was wrong to disparage Polgar and women players. He added that when he and other male colleagues actually played her: “None of us viewed her as a female player, she was one of the top 10 players in the world. Period.”
The Queen's Gambit is a huge hit on Netflix, so who better to speak to than chess legends@Kasparov63和@gmuditpolgar? The longtime rivals turned friends reflect on the sexism and rivalries of the chess world.pic.twitter.com/R5iOwXHgtN
— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour)November 17, 2020
Since Kasparov quit the world of competitive chess in 2005, he’s actually become a strong supporter of women’s chess.
9.Jennifer Shahade, a Grandmaster,has extensively posted her opinions on the show online. Shahade’s mother, Sally Solomon, a former chemistry professor at Drexel University, is Jewish; her father is Christian and Lebanese. And fun fact: Shahade’s even been onBirthright Israeltrips — twice!
总的来说，Shahade非常庆祝女王的策略,赞扬游戏的描绘以及其迷人的情节。但她还批评了妇女游戏和妇女国际象棋在展会中缺乏代表。
#TheQueensGambit是如此辉煌，但使用一些女性的游戏会很棒。许多观众谷歌哈哈哈德，并对她来说感到失望，发现她完全是虚构的。想象一下，在重定向到波尔加或Menchik或Rudenko故事/游戏中的合作眨眼。#playlikeagirl.https://t.co/HsWs0qqKc8
— Jennifer Shahade (@JenShahade)October 28, 2020
Aside from being a successful chess player and a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess champion, Shahade has a degree in comparative literature, and she’s written two books about chess:Chess婊子,about how women are changing the male-dominated chess world, andPlay Like a Girl,which is a collection of tactical positions from the world’s best women chess players.
Shahade is all about encouraging more women and girls to play chess and, more and more, the chess world is on board with that mission. Shahade toldThe New York Timesthat the reason that a lot of girls quit chess is that they just don’t have the social support. To that end, Shahade and the U.S. Chess Federation started an online chess club to keep female players engaged during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully,The Queen’s Gambitwill boost turnout, and engagement, even more.
