The Renewed Popularity of Chess and The Queen’s Gambit: Pretty Much Pop Culture Podcast Discussion #78 with Chess Expert J.J. Lang

The high level of interest in Netflix’s adaptation of the 1984 Walter Tevis novel, The Queen’s Gambit has brought this most popular game back to the forefront of pop culture. Chess expert/teacher J.J. (who’s also a grad student in philosophy) joins your hosts Mark Linsenmayer, Erica Spyres, and Brian Hirt to consider chess culture, what gives this game its edge on other contenders (why not Terra Mystica?), player personality characteristics, and the effect of chess media.

We consider gender, genius, and other issues in Gambit, plus Pawn Sacrifice, Searching for Bobby Fisher, The Luzhin Defense, and The Coldest Game.

A few articles and lists:

“Five Myths About Chess” by Jennifer Shahade
“Queen’s Gambit Beauty Debate Explained” by Constance Grady
“The Fatal Flaw of the Queen’s Gambit” by Sarah Miller
“16 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About ‘The Queen’s Gambit’” by Janaki Jitchotvisut
“10 Essential Movies About Chess” by Tim Grierson
“10 Movies to Watch About Chess if You Liked Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit” by Jake Dee
“‘Genius’: 10 Films That Explore the Brilliant Mind” by Kat Sommers

Watch J.J. on stream on Twitch. Other interviews he’s done: Perpetual Chess, Friends and Enemies, Aakaash

Hear more of this podcast at prettymuchpop.com. This episode includes bonus discussion about more chess films and other topics that you can access by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network.

Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast is the first podcast curated by Open Culture. Browse all Pretty Much Pop posts.

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