I was hesitant to watch this because I've been playing chess for 30 years and usually Hollywood gets things wrong when it comes to certain niche subjects (aviation comes to mind). The show gets the chess right with its history (talking about alekhine, morphy, et al) but for reasons that I'm sure involve some kind of law, don't put real (to the time period) chess masters as the characters. I imagine the main Russian player was supposed to be Karpov but ultimately who knows?

The show definitely tells a good story from the beginning of Beth's love of chess to the trials and tribulations along the way to the final chapter against the Russian. I personally think there was one episode too many and it kind of dragged along in some parts. It's not one full episode being dragged but certain scenes that were 2-3 minutes each and those equaled a full episode.

It's good to watch once at least. I won't watch it again but recommend anyone interested in either chess or seeing an orphan's story.