Chess has become more popular than ever during the pandemic as a popular strategy game that is easy to play online for grandmasters and streamers alike, who are able to hone their skills at a distance. Now, Netflix’s popular new show, Queen’s Gambit, has capitalized on the growing success of chess with this adaptation. While the show feels like it is a docuseries, it is actually based on a collection of stories written as a work of fiction, helping to establish this hyper-focused chess world where the board game is the most important focal point to all of the characters. The worldbuilding and other tropes have actually drawn comparisons to another popular show that relies on the over importance of a game: Yu-Gi-Oh!. Could this be the closest fans will get to seeing a live action Yu-Gi-Oh! series?
Spoilers ahead for Queen’s Gambit.
The world of Queen’s Gambit revolves solely around chess. This aspect of the show may seem obvious as we are following a chess player’s journey to the top, but one thing that separates Queen’s Gambit from other stories that follow a singular passion is the scale to which the world cares about this small niche game. Everywhere our main character, Beth Harmon, goes, there seems to be someone or something chess related for her to interact with. In fact, there is a scene in which Beth goes to the library to inquire about any books about chess, and the librarian tells her that she doesn’t think so, but she does know of a biography of an obscure chess grandmaster that she could check out. Almost every game Beth plays in, the board becomes surrounded by an audience forming an arena for this intimate game, hoping to witness a spectacle. At the orphanage where she grows up, Beth’s janitor just so happens to be an excellent chess player who teaches her how to use her innate chess ability to eventually become the best player in the world. These elements are very similar to how Yu-Gi-Oh! builds its own world up, with every named character in the show owning a deck of cards for this children’s card game, including business CEOs, a fisherman, that one bully from your school, a resurrected pharaoh from ancient times, etc. Duel Monsters, as the game is called in the show, is actually just the background for a larger corporate espionage scheme full of betrayal and heartbreak in Yu-Gi-Oh!’s first season. Yu-Gi-oh! would later delve into how the ancient Egyptians and other rulers of the world would battle for the fate of the world with the monsters from the card game, as described in hieroglyphs at the character’s local museum. The leading tech giant in Yu-Gi-Oh! even builds his own private jet to resemble his favorite monster from the children’s card game that he is so obsessed with. Creating a world that focuses on a singular passion is not entirely new, Rocky certainly raised the importance of boxing within his own franchise, but the trope is easy for fans to invest in as we all have passions that we wish the world knew more about. Whether its video games, soccer, building model trains, collecting stamps, or whatever, passions and hobbies are easily understandable stories that allow for audiences to easily submerse themselves in the character’s progression. While Queen’s Gambit’s chess world may not be the most realistic, the dynamic of a chess player’s rise to fame and the world’s reaction to it are fascinating to watch.
The Queen’s Gambit and Yu-Gi-Oh share other similarities as well, especially between their characters. Beth Harmon faces many rivals throughout her chess career, and all of them feel like they stepped right out of anime with their over the top characterizations. Her rivals include: Townes, the charmismatic photographer and journalist who happens to play chess; Harry Beltik, the cocky local champion who happens to be a bit of a chess book worm; Benny Watts, the cowboy chess prodigy who rivals her own ability; and Vasily Borgov, the Russian world champion who sits as the main antagonist amidst a brewing Cold War. Much like the main character of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi Mutou, Beth tends to befriend many of her rivals after earning their respect by beating them in embarrassing fashion for the world to see, although Yugi’s relationships with his rivals tend to be far less “intimate” as Yu-Gi-Oh! was of course a show targeted for children. Beth and Yugi share many similarities as well, besides being child prodigies within their respective games. Both have an almost spectral powers when it comes to luckiness within their games, with Yugi being able to draw with the heart of the cards to get what he needs, and Beth being able to make very intuitive moves with little to no thought involved. Both have “enhancers” of some sort that help to enhance their game, with Beth taking “tranquilizer” drugs to help clear her head and see the moves ahead more clearly while Yugi has an ancient pharaoh that possesses him to take over the game for him. When both characters face their first big loss, they both seemingly crash in the face of failure, with Beth falling into heavy drinking so that she doesn’t have to confront her losses and Yugi becomes stoic and unresponsive to his friends. Their friends have to intervene in order to motivate them to continue playing/dueling; Yugi’s friend, Tea, wins a duel to get Yugi back in the tournament to save his grandpa’s soul while Benny brings Beth to New York to coach her on how to beat the Russians so America can win the Cold War. While different targeted audiences obviously lead to different tones and dynamics within their respective shows, obviously Queen’s Gambit follows much of the same tropes that Yu-Gi-Oh! and other hobby focused shows, especially within anime, have laid the foundation for. Being a more mainstream hobby than Yu-Gi-Oh!, the chess oriented show has a little bit of everything that made the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! stand out to children of all ages and may even prove to be a bit of nostalgic watch for fans that are still holding out hope that their childhood card game could get a more mainstream adaptation. I mean Beth even defeats her Russian archrival Borgov with the power of friendship, we aren’t getting anything more Yu-Gi-Oh! than that.
Queen’s Gambit does obviously have its own merits besides being a spiritual gateway to new Yu-Gi-Oh! fans. The show can largely be seen as a character trope study for the prodigy child archetype and how these types of characters would truly react with failure and adversity. Beth is told that if she minds her manners and stays within the rules of society, she will find success because of her own talents. While these lessons prove largely true for her, they did not prepare her for the stress and adversity that could come with her talents. Beth puts constant pressure on herself to be the absolute best, putting in countless hours worth of practice to ensure that she does not make a single mistake in her games, something that many kids growing up in competitive sports and games scenes can empathize with. Her constant chess preparation often leaves her unprepared for real life problems, such as when her stepmother passes away. The show takes its time to walk through the painstaking fallout which makes Beth’s emotional crash all the more earned and visceral later in the show. The audience can feel the burdens that she carries throughout the end of the show, weighing heavily in the subtext of every game she plays. While Beth does have friends that help her come to terms with the sadness and anger she has in her life, their inconsistent appearances throughout the show help to make Beth’s battle with her past, present, and future all the more personal. I’m not sure any show has balanced the conversation of depression and addiction as well as Queen’s Gambit, emphasizing that each person’s battle with their inner demons is an individual struggle but also to remember that there is help available along the way. In the show’s finale, Beth is reminded about the friends that she has made and how the good moments can balance out the moments that brought her so much sadness throughout her life. While the end of the show does not promise that her battles with depression or addiction are over, it does show Beth acknowledging that life will not always be good, and it will not always be bad. Sometimes, even chess, which has been the source of her pride and happiness in much of her life, will also be the thing that brings her to the lowest of lows. However, Beth is the only one that can choose to embrace what makes her life meaningful and find the small moments that make her happy. And the show ends on one such small moments, as she plays a friendly, elderly Russian gentleman after the biggest win of her career just for the sake of playing the game she loves.
If you enjoyed our comparison of Queen’s Gambit and Yu-Gi-Oh! Make sure to subscribe to stay up to date on all of our future analyses and reviews.