Marcus Alden Meredith
August 23, 2025
Lessons from The Queen’s Gambit
Adventures in the World of Chess
I remember the very first time I saw a chess game pictured or played anywhere… it was in the Illustrated Edition of Alice Through the Looking Glass and the illustrations were by the well known artist, Sir John Tenniel. My father had one of these books out on his easiest to reach book shelf (where I often think he put the books in reach that he wanted me to be able to read) and I remember looking through it, especially at the drawings and thinking, “This is a really strange book. What in the world is a Jabberwocky? And what are chess pieces and what is chess?” Then I looked over at some small clay sculptures that my mother had done and that were sitting on my father’s window ledge… the Red Bishop, the Red Queen, the White Queen, the White Knight. By coincidence that year (I think I was 7 or 8) Disney had a film we kids were able to watch at school (like some reward for a rainy day) and it was Alice Through The Looking Glass. I remember there was a part of the movie (you have to remember, these were the old time 16mm movies on a projector and a screen) where a narrator told about the author and how the entire story is based on a chess game. I don’t know why, but that envisioning of a game like that really struck home with me and all I can remember is the sensation that this was a really cool thing for a story to do.
In the time when I grew up in the 70’s before video games and home computers, chess was a big deal among my friends. But I had a rather bad experience with the game. I think that because I’m a little ADHD, I was never really very good at the game instinctively. You see, high school kids are pretty bad at teaching each other the subtleties of such a rigorous game when all they REALLY want to do is beat the crap out of you. So, not being one who liked to get the tar beat outta him and really not liking the feeling of losing at that age, I finally gave up. But I never really lost a love for the game… You see, there is simply something so bloody elegant about it that it’s complexity mixed with the simplicity of the actual, physical game will forever intrigue me. So, I stayed on the “outside” of the game, trying to be content with just being an avid spectator and devotee.
The years went by, I taught some of my students chess, helped run a club for chess at my school, but I still was never very good at the “Art of Chess.” Then… 2020 came and the world broke. It was because of the enforced isolation, a new retirement situation, and the need to keep my mind occupied that I picked up the game again. But what really did it was the premier of The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix. I was so impressed with the story, the acting, and the way the game was treated that it gave me the impetus to want to study the game much more carefully. Well, when you’re stuck at home, I did a lot of reading and the reading was of chess books. This intensive time gave me a much better idea of what to do. I had a chess game on my home computer and I started playing…. still got my ass kicked by the AI, but I started to force the computer to play a lot longer. “OK,” I thought, “We’ll take the small steps. Just a little improvement every time.” Plus, it wasn’t what I remembered as a kid being beaten in games in High School. This I could do.
The years went on. I got a chess board that would move the pieces for me and allow me to change the levels of play. I kept at it, inch by inch, step by step. Then, while I was studying my French lessons on Duolingo, I found out that they had chess lessons too! Incroyable! For months now I’ve been learning the basics of chess from the beginning but with strategies being taught as well as puzzles and games like a kind of speed chess strategies game that the chess AI with Duolingo plays to help you with speed of pattern recognition. You see, I’ve come to understand over the intervening years that much of being good at chess is pattern recognition at a very high level. The lessons I’ve learned with Duolingo have been very focused on this and the repetition, ah, THE REPETITION… that has been the key. I know that I have a bad tendency not to follow one of the prime dictums of chess: See the whole board! The chess lessons have built into me an awareness of this and so my next level of learning is to not just see the whole board, but to see the patterns of moves that are possible AHEAD of the moves themselves.
Well, my confidence in the game has gone much higher since the beginning of the year. I even invested in a roll-up e-chess board from SQUARE OFF through The House of Staunton. In fact, I got it last night and immediately I played a game… AND I BEAT THE AI! With Duolingo, I get a rating (electronically) corresponding to the ELO ratings from the U.S. Chess Federation and am currently at 1153. That makes me a Class E club player in level, but compared to what I used to be, I’m happy, If I ever break through the 2000+ level (Master Level), I think I’m gonna just burst! The Great Lesson: given time, maturity, and the right format for learning, anyone can learn almost anything complex like chess and, if done right, keep a joy for it too even through a long desert of want and desire. Now, e2-e4…. your move *wink*
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