Glory To The Queen

Those who have enjoyed watching The Queen's Gambit on Netflix should look out for this documentary feature debut from Tatia Skhirtladze and Anna Khazaradze which both profiles and considers the impact  of Georgian women chess Grand Masters Nona Gaprindashvili (who far the Netflix show suggestion that she only played women, also checkmated plenty of men), Nana Alexandria, Maia Chiburdanidze and Nana Ioseliani. Non-chess players outside of Georgia may not find their names familiar, but in their homeland - from where they travelled the world dominating the sport at an international level during the Seventies and Eighties - they remain legends in their own lifetime.

Their lasting imprint is emphasised by a series of direct-to-camera statements that crop up through the course of this documentary with younger women from up and down the country, who recount a bit about their lives while also saying which of the players they were named after. Mostly this was voluntary hero worship, although some contributors note that the Soviet authorities at the time of their birth insisted on the names as a celebration of the chess players' success. The idea of the players being used as a propaganda tool is also evidenced by archive footage showing the women, with voice-over offering observations after the fact - such as the titbit that though one of the players is seen cooking for her husband she, in fact, didn't do that in real life, with the scenario entirely cooked up for the cameras. This reconsideration of the way their lives were 'spun' for public consumption at the height of their fame is so interesting, it makes you wish there was more of it.

The film mixes reconsidered archive like this with footage of the women now, going about their lives, some still playing in senior tournaments and, in most cases, also teaching the younger generation. In between, they talk about their memories of playing, including being both rivals and teammates depending on the circumstances, and their affection for one another is obvious. The directors do a good job of maintaining a balance between the amount of time dedicated to each of the women, but some of the digressions - particularly to the many people named after them, when we get the point after the first or second time -feel unlike unnecessary padding, when additional time spent with these queens of the game would be more welcome.