The Queen’s Gambit and Jewish Exclusion

By Cevin Soling, President of Spectacle Films and Xenu Records, and Harvard Academic

Picture a movie about a person from Albania enduring a hardscrabble life. She sacrifices her youth training to become a marathon runner, and when she reaches the world stage, none of the top competitors are from Africa. No matter how exceptional that film might be, this omission would be offensively glaring, even racist, given that it could not possibly have been an oversight. Anyone writing a movie on long-distance running would be keenly aware that Kenyans and Ethiopians dominate the sport, so their absence could only be intentional. The film would feel cheap as triumphs would be empty without top-tier competitors, and it would also be galling if the movie were used as a vehicle to celebrate Albanians as underdogs while ignoring the accomplishments of oppressed Kenyans and Ethiopians in this field.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#000000″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]This is not to say that The Queen’s Gambit is devoid of Jews. Quite the contrary. However, they are depicted in a demeaning manner and never appear as the top players. If any other minority entity dominated chess and was treated similarly on screen, there would likely have been calls to boycott the series.[/mks_pullquote]Enter The Queen’s Gambit. Highly regarded as an extraordinary miniseries, the TV movie tells the story of fictional child prodigy chess player Beth Harmon, as she becomes a world champion. What is missing at the top tier are Jews. According to chess.com, half of the ten greatest chess players of all time have Jewish ancestry. Given that Jews comprise just 0.2% of the world’s population and have suffered, and continue to suffer, violent discrimination – chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov changed his last name from Weinstein when he was 12 so that people would not know his father is Jewish – this is an extraordinary achievement and a glaring omission.

This is not to say that The Queen’s Gambit is devoid of Jews. Quite the contrary. However, they are depicted in a demeaning manner and never appear as the top players. If any other minority entity dominated chess and was treated similarly on screen, there would likely have been calls to boycott the series.

The first time Jews make an appearance occurs when a pre-teen Harmon is introduced to a Jewish high school chess club teacher. After defeating him, she plays the entire Duncan High School chess team at once, which is mainly comprised of Jews. Not only does she beat all of them, she later comments on how poor their skills are. As opposed to her other opponents, who are individuals, the Jews are simply a mass, unworthy of individuation or respect. At no other time in the series does she demean anyone else’s chess skills. Only marginally better are Danny Weiss and Dave Friedman, who she easily beats at the Ohio championship match before facing the highly skilled non-Jewish Benny Watts in the finals.

The series depiction of Harry Beltik best reveals the series’ troubling vision of Jews. While it is never explicitly stated, his surname intimates that he is Jewish. He also embodies antisemitic stereotypes. Beltik is portrayed as a sympathetic figure and first appears as a local champion, but he loses his title to a teenage Beth Harmon. He reemerges a few years later and briefly lives with Harmon and helps her train despite being a weaker player. While he is a man of good character, Beltik’s “inferior” stock is evidenced not merely by his weaker skills but by the extensive dental work he has done to fit in with the world of the gentiles. A nose job would have been too obvious, yet the effect is the same. Nevertheless, the change is only superficial, and we later learn that Beltik was never able to sexually satisfy Harmon during their relationship – a vicious dig that seems intended to be read emblematically of Jews. While living with Harmon, Beltik has an epiphany that he cannot compete with Harmon or others in her league and not only drops out of playing chess but leaves Harmon’s life as well. Trying to assimilate is futile because Beltnik can never escape his Jewishness. In short, he fulfills the antisemitic fantasy of self-imposed Jewish erasure.

In the final competition in the USSR, the last Jews Harmon competes against are Laev and Shapkin — the latter awkwardly and comically kisses Harmon’s hand after his defeat. This display of gawkiness is worse than the frustrated sore-loser display of Hellstrom, another player she defeats. While Hellstrom may be uncouth, at least he understands social conventions. The interplay suggests that those who do not, i.e., Jews, presumably, do not belong in society as Shapkin embarrasses himself and Harmon.

The final chess Grandmasters Harmon faces are the elite players Flento, Luchenko, and Borgov – none of whom are Jewish. The match against Luchenko was notable because he was a former champion and was magnanimous and gracious in defeat – bowing before Harmon in a heartfelt sign of respect. Making Luchenko Jewish would have involved very little in terms of script revision and would have gone a long way to redeem the antisemitism at the core of The Queen’s Gambit, but that would have been contrary to a deeper agenda.

Cevin Soling is the president of Spectacle Films and Xemu Records and an American Mensa Member with three Masters degrees from Harvard University. Soling has been published in The Atlantic, Forbes, Wired, The Daily Beast, Science 2.0, Mind/Shift, and other outlets. Soling is the author of The Student Resistance Handbook. He has appeared on TV as a featured guest on The Colbert Report as well as FOX, MSNBC, RT, and Newsmax. His award-winning films, which include A Hole in the Head, and The War on Kids, have appeared on HBO, Showtime, Sundance, BBC, PBS, Learning Channel as well as in theaters.

Guest Post

About the author

Guest Post

Jewlicious accepts and publishes a limited number of quality guest post submissions. For more information, please visit our Submissions page

25 Comments

  • Whats up! I just wish to give an enormous thumbs up for the nice information you will have right here on this post. I shall be coming back to your weblog for extra soon.

  • Bardzo ciekawy blog, rzeczowy i wywa?ony. Od dzisiaj zagl?dam regularnie i subsbskrybuje kana? RSS. Pozdrowienia 🙂

  • Why do copyright holders want to restrict distribution of their content to a particular country?

  • We wanted to share with you the best way impressed I’m in your service and product. I really wanted one to know that am almost certainly going to order extra of my own stuff via you due to their low fee in freight along with the speedy shipping and delivery. Just wanted to tell someone the event I just simply had onto your site. My newbie and ?t had been so effortless. Everything was now and quite a confusion.

  • I like what you guys are up too. Such clever work and reporting! Keep up the excellent works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my web site 🙂

  • I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right here. The sketch is attractive, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an impatience over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come further formerly again since exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this increase.

  • Hey! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back often!

  • You made some decent points there. I did a search on the subject and found most individuals will go along with with your site.

  • Hello, Neat post. There’s a problem along with your website in web explorer, could test this?K IE still is the marketplace chief and a huge part of other people will miss your wonderful writing because of this problem.

  • Great items from you, man. I’ve be mindful your stuff prior to and you are simply extremely fantastic. I really like what you’ve received right here, really like what you are saying and the best way during which you are saying it. You’re making it entertaining and you still care for to keep it smart. I cant wait to learn far more from you. This is actually a wonderful website.

  • Amazing! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a completely different topic but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Excellent choice of colors!

  • Hey, you used to write fantastic, but the last several posts have been kinda boring?K I miss your super writings. Past several posts are just a bit out of track! come on!

  • Awsome article and straight to the point. I am not sure if this is really the best place to ask but do you people have any ideea where to get some professional writers? Thanks in advance 🙂

  • Aw, this was a really nice post. In idea I wish to put in writing like this moreover – taking time and actual effort to make a very good article… however what can I say… I procrastinate alot and certainly not appear to get something done.