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50 free The Queen's Gambit trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Queen's Gambit arrived on Netflix in October 2020 and became the platform's most-watched scripted miniseries within four weeks, sending chess set sales up more than a thousand percent and putting Anya Taylor-Joy's Beth Harmon on the cover of everything. It was also the first streaming show to win the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series. These 50 questions cover the whole seven-episode run and the story behind it: Walter Tevis's 1983 novel and its Yeats epigraph, Scott Frank and Allan Scott's long road to the screen, Mr. Shaibel's basement, the Methuen tranquilizers, the Wheatleys, Benny Watts and Harry Beltik, the losses to Borgov in Mexico City and Paris, and the Moscow finale. Production questions ask why Berlin doubled for Las Vegas and Moscow, who built the games with Garry Kasparov, which real 1993 game became the final, and which Georgian champion sued Netflix over a single line. Easy questions stick to cast and plot; the hard tier is for people who noticed the episode titles. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a chess-club night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays Beth Harmon in The Queen's Gambit?
Anya Taylor-Joy
She won the Golden Globe and SAG Award for the role.
Q 02The series is based on a 1983 novel by which author?
Walter Tevis
Tevis also wrote The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Q 03Who wrote and directed the series?
Scott Frank
Frank created it with Allan Scott, who had owned the book's rights since 1992.
Q 04Who plays Beth's late mother, Alice Harmon, in flashbacks?
Chloe Pirrie
Alice held a Cornell doctorate before her mental health spiralled.
Q 05How many episodes does the series have?
7
Netflix originally ordered six, but the finished series ran one longer.
Q 06Beth grows up in which Kentucky city?
Lexington
Her mother dies in a car crash on the city's New Circle Road in the first episode.
Q 07What is the name of the orphanage where Beth learns chess?
Methuen Home for Girls
The girls there were given daily tranquilizers to 'balance their disposition'.
Q 08Which custodian teaches nine-year-old Beth to play chess in the basement?
Mr. Shaibel
Beth later learns he followed her entire career until his death.
Q 09Which actor plays the chess-playing custodian?
Bill Camp
Camp's character reluctantly agrees to teach Beth after she shows she already knows the moves.
Q 10Who plays Beth's closest childhood friend, Jolene?
Moses Ingram
Ingram later played Reva Sevander in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Q 11Which actress and director plays Beth's adoptive mother, Alma?
Marielle Heller
Heller directed Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Q 12What is the surname of the couple who adopt Beth?
Wheatley
The husband, a travelling salesman, deserts the household soon afterwards.
Q 13Which Polish actor plays the Soviet world champion Vasily Borgov?
Marcin Dorociński
Borgov is the only player Beth cannot beat until the finale.
Q 14Who plays the brash U.S. champion Benny Watts?
Q 21Alma's death is attributed to which suspected illness?
Hepatitis
Her excessive drinking is thought to have made it worse.
Q 22Which Parisian model leads Beth into a late-night bender before the Paris final?
Cleo
Hungover, Beth oversleeps and loses to Borgov again.
Q 23The night before the U.S. Championship final, Benny repeatedly beats Beth at what?
Speed chess
The experienced hustler wins every round, yet Beth beats him in the real game the next day.
Q 24Beth's final game against Borgov is adjourned after how many moves?
Thomas Brodie-Sangster
He grew up on screen in Love Actually and Game of Thrones.
Q 15Which former Potter-film actor plays Kentucky champion Beltik?
Harry Melling
Melling was Dudley Dursley in the Potter films.
Q 16D.L. Townes covers the final tournament for which newspaper?
Lexington Herald-Leader
Beth had been infatuated with the journalist since her first tournament.
Q 17In which city does Beth play the climactic invitational?
Moscow
Jolene lends her the law-school savings that pay for the trip.
Q 18Beth's late mother, Alice, earned a Ph.D. in which subject at Cornell?
Mathematics
She is seen only in flashbacks as her mental health spirals.
Q 19Where does Beth visualize chess games at night?
On the ceiling
The tranquilizers help her focus enough to project whole games above her bed.
Q 20Where does Beth first lose to Borgov?
Mexico City
He surprises her with an offbeat opening, and she returns to the hotel to find Alma dead.
40
Benny phones from New York with a team of friends to help her analyse the position.
Q 25How many Primetime Emmy Awards did the series win?
11
They included Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.
Q 26It was the first streaming show to win which Emmy category?
Outstanding Limited Series
Taylor-Joy won the Golden Globe and SAG Award but lost the Emmy for lead actress.
Q 27How many households had watched the series within four weeks, per Netflix?
62 million
That made it Netflix's biggest scripted limited series to date.
Q 28Alongside Garry Kasparov, which chess coach consulted on the series?
Bruce Pandolfini
He had also advised Tevis on the novel 38 years earlier.
Q 29Most of the series was filmed in which European city?
Berlin
Its interiors doubled for American, Mexican, French and Soviet locations alike.
Q 30Beth's adoptive family home is a house in which Canadian city?
Cambridge, Ontario
Principal photography began there in August 2019.