Looking for a chess set for Christmas? ‘Queen’s Gambit’ on Netflix is making it tough
The Netflix limited series “The Queen’s Gambit” has attracted a new generation of chess players, while making it increasingly difficult to find a chess set.
Already the most-watched scripted limited series in Netflix’s history, “The Queen’s Gambit” has led to a surge in popularity for chess. The show centers around Beth Harmon, who learns chess at a Kentucky orphanage before later becoming one of the best chess players in the world.
Google searches for “How to play chess” reached a 9-year peak following the release of the series, Netflix said Monday.
October sales for chess sets at Goliath Games “were up 178%” in October from the same period last year and sales at toy company Spin Master “increased triple digits,” NPR reported. Sales spiked 215% on eBay, according to NPR.
“Six months ago, a year ago, these retailers weren’t saying, let’s load up on chess sets,” toy analyst Gerrick Johnson told NPR. “Good luck finding a chess set this holiday!”
In the digital age, you can play chess online or even watch live games. Chess24.com, which live streams matches, has “seen an enormous surge in interest,” Insider reported.
Last month, 4.2 million hours of chess were watched on Twitch, compared to 2.4 million hours in October 2019, the New York Times reported. Popularity in the sport has also surged because of the COVID-19 pandemic, outlets have reported.
One chess streamer, Levy Rozman, said he experienced “The Queen’s Gambit effect” on one of his videos, Salon reported.
“I had a video called ‘How to play the Queen’s gambit’ that I made on August 31st... It’s now the most-viewed video I have,” he said. “It gained 150,000 views in two weeks. My average for views was like 70,000 a day. I’m now at half a million.”
Chess.com, where you can play against others online, had record days for most new members almost every day of November, Nick Barton, director of business development, told the Boston Globe.
Membership to the U.S. Chess Federation is also rising because of the show, according to the Times.
“More and more people are playing more and more games than ever before in history,” David Llada, a spokesman for the International Chess Federation, told the Times.
About 30 million children are in a school chess program, but Llada told Insider he expects that to rise to 50 million.
“Millions have realized now what a cool game it is,” Llada told Insider.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Looking for a chess set for Christmas? ‘Queen’s Gambit’ on Netflix is making it tough."