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The 12 months: 2015. The place: Sydney, Australia. Irina Berezina stands at the entrance of the classroom, going through 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 former Soviet Union is about to show these boys 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 in the former Soviet Union together 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 appears to be like of skepticism stretch into awe. The boys, all 25 of them, pack their baggage, 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 telephone. “After that, it was much easier to teach.”
Now, just a few years later, Berezina nonetheless performs chess in Sydney, Australia, primarily on-line, because of COVID-19 restrictions. She’s one among the finest gamers in Australia and the solely feminine chess participant to be topped women’ champion 4 consecutive years again residence in the former Soviet Union.
Despite her success, Berezina’s by no means had a lot consideration earlier than.
But then got here somewhat present on Netflix, based mostly 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 odds to beat the finest in the world.
Since the present’s launch, Berezina has observed an enormous surge of curiosity in chess. The miniseries has bloomed in recognition, 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 among the best 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 lady turns into a chess participant
Unlike American Beth Harmon, Berezina grew up in the former Soviet Union, the place she found chess at the age of 4. Her older brother Victor obtained a chess set for his birthday, and he or she admired the lovely faces carved into the items. She was “just running around” when she overheard her father train Victor the guidelines.
Her expertise was found at a chess membership she’d tagged alongside to together with her brother and her grandparents. They lived in a state the place chess was the No. 1 sport, part of the college curriculum and backed by authorities funding.
Berezina discovered a spot at the again of the room and sat down. Before the youngsters stood Lev Aptekar, an esteemed chess participant from the similar technology as Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal and Viktor Korchnoi.
He eyed the brilliant little faces and quizzed them about chess. In the final row, a hand shot up. Aptekar took in Berezina, the lady at the again of the room. “OK, talk,” he stated.
By the finish of the session, Berezina had a spot 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 — throughout the world. She earned the title girl worldwide master in 1993. Six years later, after emigrating to Australia, she positioned equal second in the Oceania Zonal Championship, an open males’s and women’s competitors held on the Gold Coast. The consequence earned her the prestigious title worldwide master.
Berezina’s skill to play a number of chess video games directly is perhaps 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 is predicated on somebody’s real life, it is not Berezina’s. It’s not even a girl’s. The closest inspiration Berezina can consider is Bobby Fischer, the first American grandmaster to beat a Russian at the World Chess Championship, a feat just like what Harmon achieves in the present.
In real life, the girl synonymous with the world’s finest chess gamers is Judit Polgár, a Hungarian grandmaster — the highest title a chess participant can attain aside from world champion.
Polgár refused to take part in women’s tournaments, preferring to compete in opposition to males as an alternative. In 1991, at 15 years outdated, she grew to become the youngest ever grandmaster. She defeated Magnus Carlsen, Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov and Spassky.
She’s thought-about the finest ever feminine chess participant, however her identify is not in 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 purpose — outstanding feminine gamers like Polgár hadn’t been born but. Women weren’t even allowed to compete in 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 will change into an “open” competitors.
Judit Polgár made an look at 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 file 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 motels 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 real 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 may put a grand in your pocket, but it surely’s barely sufficient to cowl the journey.
Berezina hopes the present may encourage a complete new technology of ladies 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 youngsters, notably women, 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.”
(This story has not been edited by Newslivenation employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)