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The 12 months: 2015. The place: Sydney, Australia. Irina Berezina stands on the entrance of the classroom, dealing with 25 boarding college boys. They stare again at her. Whisper. Eyebrows jag into frowns. It’s clear they do not approve.
This 50-year-old girl from the previous Soviet Union is about to show these boys learn how to play chess they usually’ll do not know what simply hit them.
She units up 25 chess boards, one in entrance of every boy. Just like she used to do again within the former Soviet Union along with her chess coach Lev. She aligns the items inside their squares. Steadies herself, concentrates.
The boys snigger, baffled. One versus 25? Sure, OK. They let her play.
Before lengthy, a king falls. Then one other and one other. Around the room, the seems to be of skepticism stretch into awe. The boys, all 25 of them, pack their luggage, defeated. As they file out, passing the subsequent group who’re nonetheless crackling with mischief, they ship a warning: “She knows what she’s talking about.”
“I earned my respect,” Berezina tells me over the cellphone. “After that, it was much easier to teach.”
Now, a few years later, Berezina nonetheless performs chess in Sydney, Australia, primarily on-line, because of COVID-19 restrictions. She’s probably the greatest gamers in Australia and the one feminine chess participant to be topped ladies’ champion 4 consecutive years again residence within the former Soviet Union.
Despite her success, Berezina’s by no means had a lot consideration earlier than.
But then got here a little present on Netflix, primarily based on Walter Tevis’ coming-of-age novel The Queen’s Gambit. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon, a fictional chess participant who competes in males’s competitions and defies the chances to beat one of the best on this planet.
Since the present’s launch, Berezina has seen a big surge of curiosity in chess. The miniseries has bloomed in reputation, proudly owning the No. 1 spot on Netflix for weeks. “Every single neighbor asked me about it,” Berezina says.
“It’s a great show,” Vladimir Feldman, Berezina’s husband and present chess coach, tells me in one other name. “It’s done very professionally.” The creators consulted one of many biggest chess gamers ever: Garry Kasparov, a Russian grandmaster and former world champion.
“It’s much more realistic than any movie I’ve seen in my life,” Berezina says.
She would know.
A younger woman turns into a chess participant
Unlike American Beth Harmon, Berezina grew up within the former Soviet Union, the place she found chess on the age of 4. Her older brother Victor obtained a chess set for his birthday, and she or he admired the gorgeous faces carved into the items. She was “just running around” when she overheard her father train Victor the principles.
Her expertise was found at a chess membership she’d tagged alongside to along with her brother and her grandparents. They lived in a state the place chess was the No. 1 sport, a a part of the college curriculum and backed by authorities funding.
Berezina discovered a spot in the back of the room and sat down. Before the youngsters stood Lev Aptekar, an esteemed chess participant from the identical technology as Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal and Viktor Korchnoi.
He eyed the intense little faces and quizzed them about chess. In the final row, a hand shot up. Aptekar took in Berezina, the woman in the back of the room. “OK, talk,” he mentioned.
By the top of the session, Berezina had a place in Aptekar’s class of sensible 5-year-olds.
“He said to my parents — ‘That’s it. She’s going to be world champion.'”
No extra dancing, no extra something. Just chess.
The real-life finest feminine chess participant
Berezina has performed chess in Jakarta, Malaysia, Moldova — all around the world. She earned the title girl worldwide grasp in 1993. Six years later, after emigrating to Australia, she positioned equal second within the Oceania Zonal Championship, an open males’s and women’s competitors held on the Gold Coast. The outcome earned her the celebrated title worldwide grasp.
Berezina’s skill to play a number of chess video games directly would possibly be acquainted. In her coaching, a younger Beth Harmon performs 12 chess matches concurrently. It’s spectacular. Even extra spectacular? Berezina can do it blindfolded.
“I can put a scarf over my eyes and play with my eyes closed.”
But if The Queen’s Gambit relies on somebody’s actual life, it is not Berezina’s. It’s not even a girl’s. The closest inspiration Berezina can consider is Bobby Fischer, the primary American grandmaster to beat a Russian on the World Chess Championship, a feat much like what Harmon achieves within the present.
In actual life, the girl synonymous with the world’s finest chess gamers is Judit Polgár, a Hungarian grandmaster — the very best title a chess participant can attain other than world champion.
Polgár refused to take part in women’s tournaments, preferring to compete towards males as an alternative. In 1991, at 15 years previous, she grew to become the youngest ever grandmaster. She defeated Magnus Carlsen, Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov and Spassky.
She’s thought of one of the best ever feminine chess participant, however her identify is not within the present’s script. “The Queen’s Gambit is so brilliant but using some women’s games would have been awesome,” former US Women’s Chess Champion Jennifer Shahade tweeted.
The present’s ’60s setting might be the explanation — outstanding feminine gamers like Polgár hadn’t been born but. Women weren’t even allowed to compete within the World Chess Championship till the 1980s.
It was Polgár’s older sister Susan who fought for qualification in 1986. She battled to have “men’s” formally faraway from the title in order that it could turn into an “open” competitors.
Judit Polgár made an look on the championship in 2005. No girl has come shut since. In 2018, solely 14% of US Chess Federation members have been feminine — and that is a report excessive.
“One of the reasons why there are very few girls playing is it’s a really male-dominated place,” Feldman says.
If solely a present like The Queen’s Gambit had come alongside sooner.
The Queen’s Gambit impact
Like Beth, Berezina has to cowl the bills of her flights and inns in Australia out of her personal pocket. She’s labored odd jobs, from chess teaching to enjoying exhibition simultaneous chess video games at film openings for pre-screening leisure.
Later in The Queen’s Gambit, Beth’s victories include good-looking winnings. But in actual life, except you are multimillionaire Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, the present world chess champion, the prize cash is not sufficient to pay the payments.
In Australia, the place chess is not obligatory at faculties and there is little authorities funding, a win at a match would possibly put a grand in your pocket, but it surely’s barely sufficient to cowl the journey.
Berezina hopes the present would possibly encourage a entire new technology of girls to take up chess.
“All my life I was dreaming of doing something about women’s chess … This show has done so much good already.”
When teaching college kids, notably ladies, Berezina faces a battle with chess’ social stigma. Chess gamers are seen as nerds or outcasts.
“Sometimes you still hear from girls, ‘Oh, it’s not cool,'” Berezina says. “I’ve been desperately trying to change this attitude.”
It was her dream to be a chess participant. To win. Yet over time, as she transitioned into teaching, Berezina’s felt the broader advantages of chess.
“It can help people on so many levels,” she explains. Improving your reminiscence, serving to youngsters who’re too shy or too aggressive, even bringing the household collectively over a cheap pastime. “It’s a sport, but it’s an art.”
Now, after a life enjoying, Berezina enjoys chess greater than ever.
“Then, all I wanted was to achieve. Now, there’s just pure love left.”
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