Grandmaster Judit Polgár’s Extraordinary Profession Is Lowered to the Degree of a Primary Slideshow in Unremarkable Netflix Doc

Chess is the kind of sport that ought to lend itself simply to cinema. It is a recreation which naturally builds in pressure as strikes escalate in the direction of the match’s denouement, exercising each psychological and tactical prowess. It is the rationale why The Queen’s Gambit and Quenen of Katwewell labored so effectively, and maybe why veteran documentarian Rory Kennedy was drawn to make Queen of Chess for Netflix, about Hungarian grandmaster Judit Polgár.

In fact, all three of those texts are additionally portraits of trailblazing girls in a discipline dominated by males. One would possibly suppose that, since chess just isn’t a contest depending on bodily acumen, it may be an space the place gender just isn’t a prohibitive issue. But, the reality appears to be the other: a recreation which exams a competitor’s mental pressure sadly leaves room for sexist males to tout regressive attitudes in regards to the relative intelligence of males over girls.

Frustratingly, Queen of Chess would not delve into both the inherent pressure of the sport nor the lifetime of sexual discrimination Polgár has confronted with almost sufficient rigor, as a substitute zeroing in on, bizarrely, and in a means that reifies mentioned sexism, the chess grasp’s lifetime pursuit of attempting to beat the Russian chess icon Garry Kasparov. True, the 2 confronted one another a minimum of seventeen instances, however the touchstone of this head-to-head battle inadvertently frames Polgár’s majestic profession as a quest to show she will be able to hold together with her male counterparts, as if beating Magnus Carlsen, Anatoly Karpov or some other world champion was insignificant. Few of these exploits made the ultimate minimize.

Queen of Chess Is Endemic of Netflix’s Lavatory-Normal ‘Documentary of the Week’ Aestheticism

The main drawback with Kennedy’s fluff piece is that it’s, for lack of a greater time period, very Netflixian. Although the movie premiered on the 2026 Sundance Movie Pageant, it feels inextricably tied to its streaming distributor. It’s structured like each different bog-standard docu-portrait on the platform, using archival footage and speaking head interviews to provide a rounded have a look at its important topic, however by no means in a means that delves deep sufficient into the encompassing circumstances of her life, nor the world from which she got here.

Many of the many juicy contextual questions which encompass Polgár’s rise to grow to be the primary (and solely) feminine chess participant to crack the highest ten and break the 2700 score barrier are given brief shrift. There’s solely passing point out of her childhood within the poverty-stricken communist Hungary of the Seventies. There’s zero point out of her Jewish religion (which she coincidentally shares with Kasparov). There’s solely informal speak of the borderline abuse she skilled on the hand of her overbearing father, which is crammed into the movie’s remaining minutes.

The shortage of in-depth dialogue of those and different matters retains Queen of Chess at arm’s size. It belongs to that sub-category of streaming movies which can be dubbed podcast cinema, or PowerPoint cinema, a category of movies which use the naked minimal of visible cues to raise it from varieties that don’t require cinematic language. Which is a disgrace contemplating simply how highly effective and trailblazing Polgár actually is.

Appreciably, Kennedy does spend loads of time framing Polgár’s distinctive talent within the context of great misogyny. Although the previous prodigy turned the quickest to succeed in grandmaster standing on the startling age of fifteen years and 4 months, beating a thirty-three-year-old file held by Bobby Fischer, she nearly by no means acquired the respect of the scores of males she beat. Fischer himself is seen on tv suggesting that ladies aren’t good sufficient to be actually nice at chess; one other male participant says that her run of victories is because of being “fortunate on a regular basis”; Viktor Kochnoi claims he “wasn’t ” in enjoying on the day Polgár cleaned his clock.

To make Polgár’s ascension indelible, Kennedy contains various punk rock needle drops to disrupt the in any other case classical music rating. It is a good, progressive contact that a lot of the movie sorely lacks. However, contemplating her topic’s impression, an impression that’s in direct opposition to a lot of the issues she confronted, it is irritating that nothing is illuminated which could not be gleaned from studying a Wikipedia entry. It might be a web optimistic that Polgár’s story can be made accessible for extra of the world to know, however to actually perceive her and her achievements, we might’ve used a couple of extra chess strikes to get to checkmate.

Queen of Chess screened on the 2026 Sundance Movie Pageant and can be launched on Netflix on February sixth.