The hit Netflix show, with its captivating anti-hero Beth Harmon, has brought the game to new audiences and demographics, with the number of new female players on Chess.com now at an all-time high.
You are browsing in private mode. To enjoy all the benefits of our website LOG IN or Create an Account Rose Vernon, a 26-year-old civil servant living in London, never thought she was the chess type. “I thought chess was really complicated,” she told me, and “that you had to play for years before you had a chance of understanding what was happening on the board.” But at the end of 2020, Vernon decided to learn how to play the strategic board game. She now plays twice a week online (on the world’s largest chess website, Chess.com) and at home with her boyfriend, on a real board. Vernon’s interest is part of a wider chess revival. On 23 October 2020 Netflix released the seven-part drama The Queen’s Gambit, which follows Beth Harmon, an orphan and a chess prodigy, who endeavours to become a grandmaster. In the month that followed the release of the fictional show, there was an estimated 215 per cent rise in searches for “chess set” on eBay. The US advertising trade magazine Adweek also reported an 857 per cent search increase for chess sets on Amazon. Nick Barton, director of business development at Chess.com, told me: “Without question, the show has made an impact on the number of new players finding their passion for chess.” [see also: How Netflix changed the channel] With its slick production and dramatic subplots of drug addiction and romance, The Queen’s Gambit has glamorised chess. The show was well timed, released seven months into the coronavirus pandemic, during which many people have been confined to their homes.
