The Queen's Gambit, Part 2, Miscellaneous Notes

The Queen's Gambit

It's a fantasy, much like movies about action heroes, but it's for brainy girls. Since it is fiction, I was more inclined to analyze what the movie makers were doing. Movies 'inspired by actual events' are also mostly fiction, but they at least have the stated purpose of telling you about something that actually happened. Here, we're taking bits and pieces and sticking them together into a very wonderful story, but it made me wonder just what narrative they are trying to sell. Having a lovely young women in the leading role makes it very easy to watch. The nice clothes, the fancy hotels are enjoyable.

The soundtrack is awesome. OK, there are two soundtracks. One was composed specifically for this show and sounds like classical music. The other is a selection of pop hits from the 1960's. That got my attention. Boy, howdy, did they get my attention.

Chess teaches logical thinking. That's wrong, it doesn't teach you, it requires it. Those who can master logical thought can play the game, those who can't, can't.

Logical thought and the threat of annihilation (through modern warfare) led to the development of modern digital computing machinery.

Programming computers requires a great deal of logical thought. Chess is relatively simple, an 8 by 8 checkerboard with 32 pieces of 6 different types. There are a limited number of opening moves, but after that it quickly becomes horribly complicated. Thinking about computer programming, I realized the closest comparison I could make would be with machine code or assembly language. In a simple 8-bit machine like the Intel 8051 microcontroller, you could have 256 different opcodes, operating on a couple of hundred bytes of memory. You could do horribly complicated things with only a few bytes of code.

The bit about drugs and alcohol were a little confusing. I've run into stories about functioning alcoholics before, how they can apparently function perfectly well on a diet consisting of mostly whiskey, and how they can stop drinking without any ill effects any time they choose. Our girl goes through periods of drinking and abstaining. Of course this is just another story. I haven't come across any information that supports such ability.

Tranquilizers seem like exactly the wrong kind of drug to support complex logical analysis, but who knows. Maybe for the right person with right mind, it would help.

Part 1 here.