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Netflix made chess thrilling and seductive during the pandemic with The Queen’s Gambit.
Kevin James Doyle’s show can’t hope to compete with that. Nor can his game. What he could do, though, is establish a career teaching chess lessons to kids, and somehow parlay that into lucrative opportunities. And yet. Whether’s those opportunities present themselves in the form of a hot French Moroccan aunt or a wealthy business partner in Singapore, Doyle cannot ever seem to be much more than a pawn in his own story. It might’ve been more enjoyable to find out how Doyle would sustain his career had he taken that Law & Order acting gig, than to hear how he struggled to get laid by a woman who’s out of his league.
Great chess players think several moves ahead. It’s ironic, then, that in real life Doyle finds himself caught flat-footed, and that for us as an audience, we’re left wondering exactly how a chess tutorial could be expanded out as a billion-dollar business plan.
We do, at least, learn some fascinating history based upon great moments in chess, although those lessons often arrive only in hindsight for those particular players, too.
