It could be a Stan Lee comic. Tragic origin, raised in a nearly-hostile orphanage, forced to learn the world's ropes on her own, and constantly fighting off the effects of tranquilizers, Beth Harmon discovers that she has a superpower: she's REALLY good at chess.

The Queen's Gambit tees up tons of great themes about a young woman in the 1950's and 60's making her way in a man's world, navigating relationships, and wrestling with addiction. Is she more than her analytical powers? Can she stand against a Russian grandmaster backed by a chess establishment that has the advantage of decades of experience over her? And along the way, is romance a game she's fated to lose?

Gambits are a kind of offer in chess: lots of excitement and the possibility of victory, but with a lot more risk along the way, if you dare to take them on instead of playing it safe in the duller, familiar lines. Turns out that Beth Harmon has a chance to play the Gambit we all get offered: to love and be loved in the broken world, and find patterns of victory in its midst nonetheless.