'The Queen’s Gambit' Movie Facts (16 pics)

1

Anya Taylor-Joy joined The Queen's Gambit even before there was a script. Show co-creator Scott Frank sent Anya a copy of the novel the show is based on and she was sold.

2

Before his untimely death, Heath Ledger was going to make his directorial debut on a film version of The Queen's Gambit. He wanted to have Ellen Page star as Beth Harmon.

3

Anya knew nothing about chess before signing on to play the lead character.

4

The Queen's Gambit story and its main character Beth Harmon are fictional. However, Beth has many similarities to the famous chess prodigy, Bobby Fischer. Both won the US chess championship in 1967. Both supported themselves alone as teenagers. Both learned Russian to keep up with their Soviet rivals. Both spent their money on expensive clothes. Both made a living playing chess and they both had an aggressive style of play.

5

Garry Kasparov (a Russian chess grandmaster) and Bruce Pandolfini (a renowned American chess teacher) choreographed every chess move in the show.

6

Garry Kasparov was asked to play the Russian grandmaster, Borgov in The Queen's Gambit. Kasparov turned down the offer to be a chess consultant instead. He designed the show's final chess matches in Russia and offered a better understanding of how chess prodigies feel when thrust into the limelight.

7

Every chess game in the show is played by the actors during those scenes. This includes the rapid-paced speed chess games and scenes where only the actors' face is shown playing.

8

Anya is naturally blonde and dyed her hair a deep colour of red for her role as Beth Harmon.

9

To keep things fresh in her mind, Anya was shown all of her chess moves minutes before a scene was shot.

10

Most of the series was filmed in Berlin despite the majority of the show being set in the US.

11

Anya is a massive Harry Potter fan. Her Queen's Gambit co-star, Harry Melling played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter movies. Anya says Melling graciously listened to her lose it over his role in the Potter films.

12

Mr. Shaibel gives Beth a book titled Modern Chess Openings. This is a real book that was first published in 1911. Since then it has seen 15 editions and has been described as "the first scientific study of the openings in the twentieth century."

13

Thomas Brodie-Sangster plays chess prodigy Benny Watts in The Queen's Gambit. You may recognize Thomas from the Maze Runner movies and you may have heard him as the voice of Ferb Fletcher in the popular Disney cartoon Phineas and Ferb.

14

Marielle Heller plays Beth Harmon's adopted mother Alma in the show. Marielle is an accomplished director of several films including the Mister Rogers biopic, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

15

Filled with happiness for her character, Anya broke down with tears of joy during every take of the Russian park scene - the final moment of the series.