The Queen’s Gambit has the master challenge of making chess a visually watchable game, and it has largely succeeded. How did the screenwriters do it? An infinitely watchable character, the themes of addiction and obsession, and embracing the visual language of the screen. The series is based on the book of the same name by Walter Tevis, and Tevis is said to be influenced by real-life chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, who was the first American to win the World Chess Championship. Like protagonist Beth, Fischer had no formal training. But Beth’s story had to be fictional, as it was nearly impossible for women to rise through the chess ranks in the Cold War era when Beth’s story takes place. Nevertheless, if the series spawns a young woman’s interest in a game that has long been dominated by men, that’s a win all around. Here are five takeaways (spoiler alert) from the new Netflix drama The Queen’s Gambit.

1. Compelling backstory: Beth (played by Anya Taylor-Joy and Isla Johnston in episode I) has a backstory that hooks you right away. Beth survived a terrible car accident that killed her mother (who possibly crashed the car intentionally). Beth was completely and miraculously unscathed; but now parentless, she is sent to an orphanage that has a propensity for tranquilizing its charges. Beth gets hooked because she can see things more clearly (and find sleep in one crowded sleeping area) when she saves her tranquilizer for nighttime. Beth is hooked double time when she learns the tranquilizers aid her visualization of a chess board on the ceiling after she starts playing secretive games with the orphanage’s very apt chess playing janitor. With such an underdog story, Beth is easy to root for, despite her addictions.

2. When the camera is not your only scene partner: Again, it’s hard to not praise Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth, but screenwriters deserve equal credit for creating depth in an isolated world. Beth is often bathed in loneliness. Chess is a game where you not only have to beat your opponent, but you also have to beat the board and the game itself. The sumptuous visual language of the scripted game play makes chess feel like the most intense of visual sports. Additionally, Beth’s addiction puts her in another sort of mental prison, and the ceiling, a bedroom, or a bathroom becomes Taylor-Joy’s acting canvas just as much as a human scene partner does.

3. Competition: Gambit is, in a way, a sports movie. You have a fine-tuned competitor obsessed with being the best. There are glamorous and not so glamorous tournaments that take place around the world. Beth is an automatic underdog, and an anomaly as a woman competing in a man’s game. The competition element of the miniseries is a huge draw, particularly as each chess tournament is more compelling than the last. Root for Beth, and root for chess?! Hey, in 2020 it’s nice to have ANYTHING TO ROOT FOR AT ALL!

4. When your protagonist becomes your antagonist: There is a dark undercurrent to this story. As mentioned in the first takeaway, Beth is an addict from an early age. There is a killer scene in episode I when Beth breaks into the orphanage’s clinic area and starts gobbling tranquilizers like there’s no tomorrow. It’s freeing, an act of rebellion, but it also foreshadows some tough days to come. Beth’s addiction is ever-present, always lurking just under the surface, and her addiction to winning becomes just as potent as her addiction to pills and booze. Beth has no antagonist in this film other than her own addiction and the chess board. Not many actors can carry every scene of dual personality and pleasure and pain so aptly, but again, Taylor-Joy is infinitely watchable as she portrays cool, calm and collected just as easily as unhinged. Director Scott Frank told Entertainment Weekly Taylor-Joy is an actor "with eyes in the back of her head." That she is keenly aware of the camera, but that she equally embraces “still and quiet.” It’s as mesmerizing as Frank has made chess itself.

5. Making chess sexy: Frank spent countless hours deciding just how to make chess sexy. Aside from having consultations with chess masters to make sure every chess move in the piece is real, Frank watched countless chess films and is himself an avid player. He stated his biggest influence was Pawn Sacrifice, Edward Zwick’s film about Bobby Fischer.

“He made me believe I didn’t have to show a lot of the board,” Frank told Entertainment Weekly.

Instead, Frank focused on the emotion and character stakes of the game. He also wanted to give each tournament its own separate flair to reflect exactly what Beth was going through in the time and place in the story. When Beth has a true connection with a player on the other side of the board, the game can go from tense to sexy in an instant.

Chess is an individual and intricate game that called for storytelling that could reflect its highs and lows, and screenwriter and director Frank achieved just that. The magic (and sexiness) of chess is portrayed through incredible acting (and duality of personality), the trust of silence, well thought-out chess coordination, and embracing competition movie tropes when it serves the story. Gambit will cast chess in a new light, while giving the screenwriter searching for a movie that embraces writing in a competition setting inspired scenes they will not soon forget.