Famous chess champion and Avast ambassador Garry Kasparov sits down for a behind-the-scenes interview with The Queen's Gambit creator Scott Frank.

Question: What happens when you combine a World Chess Champion, a major streaming platform, and an obscure 1983 novel about an orphan?

Answer: The Queen’s Gambit.

In this very special episode of Garry on Lockdown, Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov sits down with Scott Frank, the creator of the new hit Netflix miniseries. As our Avast Security Ambassador, Garry usually takes on the ethical questions around the relationship between human and machine. When Garry shared with us that he was a consultant for The Queen's Gambit, however, we didn't want to miss the chance to do a special edition of his Garry on Lockdown video series. So Garry sat down with Scott Frank, the director of the show, to share some insider knowledge.

Scott and Garry talk about the decades-long process of getting the Queen’s Gambit adapted from its original 1983 novel. Scott himself actually wasn’t interested at first, until he read it and realized the depth of the story. That same response was repeated for years, as production company after production company rejected a “movie about chess.”

“Movies became spectacle,” Scott says. “It was hard to get people to fund a movie like that.”

Naturally curious about the actual chess in the miniseries, Garry asks Scott how they made the games look so natural. They chat about the choices for casting the lead role, including why Scott chose to go with two young actors to play Beth as a child instead of one. And they go into detail about shooting the series in Berlin — and rejecting Prague because it’s as too much of a “fairytale city” — and whether or not there will be a second season of Queen’s Gambit. 

Listen in on their conversation and then if you missed any of the other episodes, check out:

Episode 1: AI, coronavirus tracking, and remote working

Episode 2: Misinformation

Episode 3: Free speech

Episode 4: CyberSec AI

Episode 5: Cancel culture