How many episodes are there in 'The Queen's Gambit'? Find out

The new Netflix drama The Queen’s Gambit has created quite a buzz ever since it was released on the platform on October 23. The miniseries is heavily based on author Walter Tevis's 1983 novel of the same name. Helmed by Scott Frank and Allan Scott, the Netflix series stars actor Anya Taylor-Joy. The story of the show revolves around a young chess prodigy named Beth Harmon, who begins to heavily depend on drugs to improve her focus and strategies in the game. Read on to find out: How many episodes are there in The Queen's Gambit?

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The Queen's Gambit Episodes

How many episodes are there in The Queen's Gambit?

The new Netflix miniseries has a total of seven episodes. All of them were released on the streaming platform in one go. Here is a comprehensive list of all The Queen’s Gambit episodes.

• Episode 1: Openings (59 minutes)
• Episode 2: Exchanges (65minutes)
• Episode 3: Doubled Pawns (46 minutes)
• Episode 4: Middle Game (48 minutes)
• Episode 5: Fork (48 minutes)
• Episode 6: Adjournment (60 minutes)
• Episode 7: End Game (67 minutes)

Source: @allyoucanpaul (Twitter)

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The Queen's Gambit cast

The Queen's Gambit season 1, has an ensemble cast list, featuring some of the best actors in Hollywood. 24-year-old American Actor Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Beth Harmon, the young adult competitive chess player who wants to become the greatest chess player in the world. Isla Johnston plays young Beth and Annabeth Kelly stars as five-year-old Beth. Here is the rest of The Queen’s Gambit cast list according to the show’s IMDb page.

• Bill Camp plays Mr Shaibel, the custodian at the Methuen Home for Girls who teaches Beth how to play chess.
• Moses Ingram plays Jolene, a fellow orphan at the Methuen Home.
• Christiane Seidel stars as Helen Deardorff
• Rebecca Root plays Miss Lonsdale
• Chloe Pirrie is Alice Harmon, Beth's deceased birth mother
• Marielle Heller plays Mrs Alma Wheatley, who with her husband Allston adopts Beth as a young teenager and becomes Beth’s adoptive mother.
• Rest of the cast list includes Harry Melling as Harry Beltik, Patrick Kennedy as Allston Wheatley, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Townes, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Benny Watts and Marcin Dorociński as Vasily Borgov.

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Is Beth Harmon from The Queen’s Gambit season 1 real?

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A report in Esquire magazine has revealed that, in reality, Beth Harmon never existed, and the tranquillizer, Xanzolam is fictional too. However, The Queen’s Gambit is not entirely fictional either. The report states that The Queen’s Gambit draws inspiration from the insular world of competitive chess, circa the 1950s and 1960s America. 

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The author of the novel (The Queen’s Gambit), Walter Tevis was inspired by the extraordinary talents of Grandmasters Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, and Anatoly Karpov. Hence, the many chess games in the show are indeed real. Moreover, the drug problem highlighted in the show is also real as it did exist in American orphanages in the late 50s and early 60s. The report reveals that some American orphanages reportedly sedated young residents during the mid-50s.