Play chess under Anya Taylor-Joy's withering gaze with this Queen's Gambit browser game

By Reid McCarter | March 8, 2021 | 7:22pm

Aux Features gambit

Play chess under Anya Taylor-Joy's withering gaze with this Queen's Gambit browser game

Photo: Phil Bray (Netflix)

Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit is a huge hit, which we imagine has led plenty of people to renew or discover an interest in playing chess (with or without help from handfuls of blue tranquilizers). While it’s easy enough to make or find a chessboard, those who want to capture a bit of the show’s atmosphere may be interested in practicing with The Kilobyte’s Gambit, a lo-fi browser chess game that adds a little extra intensity to every match thanks to a pixel art version of Anya Taylor-Joy’s Beth Harmon that wordlessly judges your every move.

Made by designer Matt Round, The Kilobyte’s Gambit uses Oscar Toledo G’s one kilobyte chess code and Pinot W. Ichwandardi’s art to give players an opportunity to play Queen’s Gambit-themed digital chess in their browser. The game “supports castling, en passant, and pawn promotion (to queen only)” and is rendered in retro 4-color CGA graphics.

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All of this is well and good, but the real highlight of Round’s take on browser chess is that every move the player makes is watched over by the TV show’s Beth Harmon, a prodigy who is obviously thinking about how stupid your decisions are as she sits with her chin resting on crossed fingers. This is a real motivation to do your very best. Play well and you may win a genius’ approval. Play poorly and know that she’ll return to a hotel room that stinks of spilled liquor and cigarettes to complain to a young man in a big cowboy hat about why you were even picked to compete against her in the first place.

If you think you’re tough enough to stand up to this kind of scrutiny, give The Kilobyte’s Gambit a try for yourself over here.

[via Boing Boing]

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