Queen’s Pawn takes the Pawn

15th Women’s World Chess Champion Mariya Olehivna Muzychuk, interviewed by Halyna Tereshchuk for Radio Svoboda, could not avoid bringing together her impressions on the Netflix worldwide hit The Queen’s Gambit: “I would not say that I identify myself with the main character [Elizabeth “Beth” Harmon]. In comparison to men, few women do indeed play chess. There has never been a woman capable of winning the all-gender World Championship. But I liked all the good things of the miniseries, and especially the enthusiasm with which it was greeted. I liked the acting, because it is difficult, without being a chess player, to evoke the atmosphere, to sit at the board, to convey those emotions and moves — the way we play, the way we think. Of course, the miniseries does not reflect our way of life. The film remains a film. To be sure, there are no magic pills to become a World Champion. To be successful you have to work hard. Perhaps people like a shortcut such as a pill that may allow you not to play chess for eight years, as in the miniseries, and then come back and be on top again. Life does not work that way, and I guess that’s why the miniseries is so popular”, she said. Photo: Halyna Tereshchuk/Radio Svoboda/RFE/RL.