Chess, like most discernible parts of human society, saw its usage affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, in this case, the 550-year-old game saw a marked rise in interest. Between October 2020 to April 2022, Chess.com said they saw their active monthly users double to nearly 17 million.
We can’t give all the credit to quarantining; a not insignificant part of the chess boom was thanks to Netflix’s hit series The Queen’s Gambit, released in October 2020 and adapted from Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel. The book and series follow a fictional chess prodigy, orphan Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), as she battles trauma, grief, sexism and addiction in a Bobby Fischer-like rise to chess dominance (minus Fischer’s rampant racism and antisemitism).
Netflix reported a then-record 62 million households watched Gambit in its first 28 days. “Not since an American [Fischer] became world champion in 1972 had there been such a surge of interest in chess,” the New York Times noted in June 2022.
You know about Queen’s Gambit, but did you know author Walter Tevis graduated from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1960? The story goes that Tevis published his first novel while at the Workshop and sold the film rights to help pay for his MFA studies. That novel was The Hustler, and those film rights resulted in the Paul Newman flick of the same name.
The author of a fictional chess story isn’t Iowa’s only claim to chess fame. One of the highest-rated American Chess players resides in Iowa City. Michael Takahashi is a United States Chess Federation (USCF) National Master; less than 1 percent of rated chess players in the United States hold that title. The 22-year-old Takahashi offers online and in-person lessons for those wanting to learn from the Master.
Meanwhile, 11-year-old Iowan Irene Fei is a Women FIDE Master, having won gold in October in the 2024 Pan-American School Chess Championship, held in Asunción, Paraguay. Fei won the Under-13 Girls section and is currently the top-rated women’s chess player in Iowa. Not bad for a sixth-grader.
Follow along with an annotated analysis of one of Fei’s games from the Pan-American School Chess Championship. Courtesy of JJ Lang with uschess.org
“It’s beautiful sometimes, like when you’re in difficult positions, and you must find your way out of them to win,” she told the Ames Tribune. “It’s like art to me.”
Asked how she feels about facing opponents much older than her, Fei offered a very Beth Harmon response: “Winning is winning, and it always feels good to win.”
Not all Iowa chess culture is so wholesome. The state claims an entry in the not-insignificant list of chess-related deaths throughout history. In this case, a murder. In October 2008, an Iowa City man killed his roommate and frequent chess opponent over a late-night game gone bad. A Daily Iowan article relayed that an acquaintance of the guilty party said they “…discussed his hobby, talking about the iconic chess player Bobby Fischer.” Perhaps they took Fischer’s famous “chess is life” quote a bit too far.
Buckle up for this bit of chess info. In 2016, Grand Master Timur Gareyev broke the world record for most consecutively played blindfold games at the Coralville Marriott Hotel. Gareyev, known as the Blindfold King, played 64 consecutive games while pedaling on an exercise bicycle. He won 54, lost eight and drew to two players.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, if you search Gareyev, it’s not long before you find the recent scandals involving multiple sexual misconduct complaints. In June 2022, Gareyev was banned from even attending U.S. Chess national events for two years.
The allegations against Gareyev, among other scandals, led to lawsuits, resignations and an infamous social media exchange in which USCF president Randy Bauer responded to a comment that stated, “It is amazing to me that you do not think U.S. Chess deserves criticism,” with, in part, “I don’t give a rats behind about your amazement.” Bauer also happens to have served as Iowa’s state budget director for seven years under Gov. Tom Vilsack.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s December 2024 issue.
