culture
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The chess champion in a critique of "Queen Gambit": in reality the industry is much more sexist
Network star and chess champion Alexandra Botez admits that since the rise of the "Gambit Queen" series on Netflix, her life has changed, but she has a critique of the plot's credibility:
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Sunday, 03 January 2021, 00:01
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Trailer for the series "The Queen Gambit", starring Anya Taylor-Joy (Netflix)
There is much talk about "Queen Gambit", one of the most watched series on Netflix for 2020. Beyond being well made and fascinating throughout, it has been claimed that the series has managed to faithfully represent the world of chess and restore the game to its greatness.
However, if you ask the leading chess and streaming star on the gaming platform, Alexandra Butz, what she thinks of her counterpart in the series, Beth Harmon - you will find that she has reservations.
Alexandra Botez grew up in Canada after her family emigrated there from Romania, where the chess industry flourished.
When she was 6, her father bet her mother that she could beat her in chess, just two weeks after she learned from her father how to play.
When she defeated her mother in the game, her father continued to train her for tournaments.
He took her to local parks to play in front of the "veterans", he would tell them "is it okay if my daughter tries to play?"
And they in their innocence would turn a chair over to her - only to find out later that they had fallen into the net of a brilliant girl in chess.
At the age of 8, Butez won the national chess championship for the first time and by the time she graduated from high school she had won six more championships.
She refused the chess scholarship she received to study at Stanford University where she had always dreamed of studying, where she became president of the first chess club.
The 25-year-old Bootze currently holds the FIDE Master's title for women from the International Chess Association and manages a successful Twitch channel with more than 450,000 followers, where - alongside her 18-year-old sister Andrea - she broadcasts live chess games.
"It was my way of getting back in touch with my roots," Butz told Insider, "I enjoy the social element of the platform. It's a lot more fun to play with friends than to play alone," she added.
Botez also has an Instagram page with more than 250,000 followers and a YouTube channel (BotezLive) that has garnered more than 25 million views.
For senior influencers and streamers, the earning potential is surprising: Twitter's leading streamer, the video gamer Ninja, has 16 million followers and is valued at about $ 15 million.
Most streamers make money from sponsorships, but their main income comes from subscriptions and advertising.
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"In reality, Beth had no chance"
Botez's success in competitions is based on the talent and experience she has gained over the years, but she owes her viral success to the "Queen Gambit" series, which tells the story of a girl in the 60s who turns out to be a chess sensation and sets out to conquer the world.
Following the series, renewed interest in the game began.
Butez said: "It's amazing what the series did to the game of chess, at least in terms of the average person's knowledge of the subject. I never imagined the game would garner such awareness, because chess has always been considered a niche writer. Chessboard sales on eBay have skyrocketed more than 130 percent. "The series had a big impact on women's interest in chess. During this period of the Corona, chess became a hit on Twitter and I became one of the leading streamers."
Although Boutze owes her success to the series, she spares no criticism of it.
According to her, if the series had been historically accurate - Beth could not have participated in the chess competitions.
Botez argues that although the series touched a little on the issue of gender difference, sexism is strongly rooted in an industry that to this day is dominated by men.
"If the plot of the series was historically accurate, Beth had no chance," said Boots, recalling first Grandmaster Susan Folger, who qualified for the 1986 World Chess Championship but was banned from participating due to gender.
"She qualified for the 'Candidates' Competition', which is a tournament where the winner will compete for the world championship," said Botez, "it means you are at least the second best player in the world and Folger qualified according to her ranking."
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A post shared by Alexandra Botez (@missbotez)
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A post shared by Alexandra Botez (@missbotez)
In addition, Alexandra Botez claims that some men's behavior towards chess players is much worse than described in the series.
"The way the men supported her when she won is inaccurate," Buttz said, "if you read the true stories of women who played in that period, men would not even shake their hands or look at them."
In a recent interview with the newspaper St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, Folger recalled a player who threw all the pieces off the board in frustration after losing to her.
"I had to deal with sexual harassment, insults and defamation on a regular basis," Polger said of her experience in competitions in the 1970s and 1980s.
Botez reinforced this and said that she experiences sexism in chess communities even today.
"Sometimes the people who are your closest friends think women are genetically worse at chess," she added.
Buttz added that she often heard comments like "You're playing against a woman, it's an easy win."
In a recent Insider interview, Magnus Carlsen, one of the world's leading chess players, said he was still exposed to sexism and chauvinism in the chess world.
"In general, the chess communities have not been particularly likable to women and girls over the years," he said, "a cultural change should definitely be made here."
Both Butz and Carlsen said that misogyny in chess is more common among older players than among younger audiences.
Botez added that most of the girls she knew who played chess in elementary school stopped playing when they got to high school, mostly because they were taught that it was a male game.
Botez claims she is trying to ignore sexism and focus on the game.
She said: "It's stuck in the back of your head when you hear it over and over again over time. It can hurt your personal confidence."
She added: "You're starting to doubt yourself a little bit, but you're just trying to keep fighting these thoughts and show the world that it's small on you."
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Watch a game of chess on Twitch:
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The passion in the game
Despite the criticism, Bootz claims that "Queen Gambit" describes well the love and passion she feels towards the game of chess.
She says she has always been so focused on chess that it felt like she was living in an alternative universe built for the game.
"Beth is completely immersed in the world of chess. There seems to be nothing else but these games, the training, the community and the chess," Buttz said of the character. "The way you describe it is very accurate.
Now that she has moved to Austin, Texas, Bootz is expected to sign with an agency representing leading athletes in e-sports.
"I want to make the game more accessible to the average player," she recounted, "I think my sister and I did a good job of explaining the game and yes, Beth also contributed."
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