Suzanne Humphries
If watching Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit got you interested in chess (or reignited your love for the remarkable game), you’ll likely be delighted to hear that you can now play a game against the show’s protagonist Beth Harmon. A new series of chess bots developed by Chess.com allows you to play against Beth at her varying proficiency levels.
The seven Beth Harmon bots are set at varying chess strength levels, noted below in parenthesis, allowing a wide variety of players to play a well-matched game. The bots include: Beth aged eight (850), Beth aged nine (1200), Beth aged 10 (1600), Beth aged 15 (1800), Beth aged 17 (2400), Beth aged 20 (2500), and Beth aged 22 (2700).
Netflix stated that The Queen’s Gambit—based on the novel of the same name, written 37 years ago—has been its “biggest limited scripted series ever.” The series has caused Google searches for chess to double, searches for “chess sets” on eBay to soar 250%, and the number of new players on Chess.com to increase five fold to 3.2 million. CNN noted that the series caused the sales of chess sets to spike 87% and sales of books about chess to leap by 603% three weeks after its release. Playing chess has always been a beloved pastime, and looks to remain a popular game for the foreseeable future.
via Gadgets 360
