I went into watching this based on the 9s and 10s from reviews but I'm not sure why this is getting such high praise. It's definitely well made and well acted, and takes place within the unique concept of the world of chess, but by the half way mark, I was wondering when the show was actually going to 'start'.

Once Beth comes of age and starts her journey, its simply a matter of jumping to a new location, play a game of chess (that we barely get to see), that she obviously wins and then on to the next location, with little bits of shallow dialogue with other characters thrown in. Rinse and repeat. I was hoping we would get demonstrations on the intricacies of the game and explanations and demonstrations of the tactics she uses, but for a show about chess, we barely actually see the game other than watching two people moving their pieces across the board really quickly for 10 seconds at a side view (which isn't actually very realistic).

You could say that its instead a character study but the protagonist experiences very little in the way of character development apart from her relationship with her adopted mother. Anya Taylor-Joy does a good job but the character just becomes predictable and uninteresting. You basically just expect her to succeed in what she does which becomes boring as she has no clear obstacles to overcome. The one time she doesn't even win isn't even counted as a loss, but a draw. I looked ahead at some reviews to see if the show actually changes gear after the half way mark and apparently, this it for the entirety so I've given up.

TLDR; Not bad. Fine if you're looking for something quick and easy to binge but don't expect anything deep or ground-breaking.