18+Season 1
Beth Harmon makes her move
Synopsis
The Queen's Gambit (2020), Season 1 — a seven-episode Netflix drama you can watch online on iFILM. It begins in a 1950s Kentucky orphanage, in a basement, where a janitor moves pieces on a board and a nine-year-old girl cannot look away.
Beth Harmon — Anya Taylor-Joy — turns out to be a prodigy. The season traces her climb from small-town amateur events through Las Vegas and Mexico City to the Soviet grandmasters waiting at the top. Each step up the ladder costs something: the green tranquilizers from the orphanage grow into a routine, and Beth's gift has a way of becoming her own worst opponent. A handful of people along the way — an adoptive mother, rival players who turn into allies — give the story texture that goes beyond the chessboard. Scott Frank directed all seven episodes himself, which gives this miniseries an evenness that weekly TV rarely manages.
The sharpest thing about it is not the chess. Stream The Queen's Gambit Season 1 online on iFILM.
7 episodes
S1·E1Openings
Sent to an orphanage at age 9, Beth develops an uncanny knack for chess — and a growing dependence on the green tranquilizers given to the children.
S1·E2Exchanges
Suddenly plunged into a confusing new life in suburbia, teenage Beth studies her high school classmates and hatches a plan to enter a chess tournament.
S1·E3Doubled Pawns
The trip to Cincinnati launches Beth and her mother into a whirlwind of travel and press coverage. Beth sets her sights on the U.S. Open in Las Vegas.
S1·E4Middle Game
Russian class opens the door to a new social scene. In Mexico City, Beth meets the intimidating Borgov, while her mother cozies up to a pen pal.
S1·E5Fork
Back home in Kentucky, a shaken Beth reconnects with a former opponent who offers to help sharpen her game ahead of the U.S. Championship.
S1·E6Adjournment
After training with Benny in New York, Beth heads to Paris for her rematch with Borgov. But a wild night sends her into a self-destructive spiral.
S1·E7End Game
A visit from an old friend forces Beth to reckon with her past and rethink her priorities — just in time for the biggest match of her life.
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