If You Loved The Queen’s Gambit, Netflix’s New Chess Thriller Is Your Next Obsession
Five years after The Queens Gambit checkmated pop culture, Netflix is back at the board with Queen of Chess, a gripping new documentary now streaming that tracks the rise and relentless drive of prodigy Judit.
If The Queen's Gambit woke up a chess-sized hole in your brain and it has been sitting there for five-plus years, Netflix just filled it. The streamer dropped a new feature doc, Queen of Chess, and it is not a remix of a TV hit. It is the real thing: the rise of Judit Polgar, the prodigy who steamrolled through a boys-only club and rewired the sport while she was still a teenager.
What it is
Queen of Chess is now streaming on Netflix. The film tracks Polgar from 1989, when she was 12 and already terrifying at the board, through a 13-year push aimed squarely at the top guy: Garry Kasparov. Yes, that Garry Kasparov, the world No. 1 many still call the greatest ever. Along the way, she hit the milestone that made headlines around the world: at 15, Polgar became the youngest chess grandmaster at the time. The movie leans into all of it: sharp wins, thin-skinned rivals, high-stress showdowns, and the unexpected friendships that happen when your entire life is tournaments and hotel ballrooms.
Who is in it and who made it
This is a sit-down-with-the-principals kind of doc. You get Polgar herself, her family, Kasparov, and a lineup of top players who were there for the battles and the drama.
- Director: Rory Kennedy (Emmy winner)
- Writers: Mark Bailey and Keven McAlester
- Producers: Mark Bailey, Keven McAlester, Rory Kennedy
- Cinematography: Imre Juhasz
- Music: Camilo Forero and Chris Brocato
- Editors: Azin Samari and Jesse Overman
Why now
The film just had its world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and slid straight onto Netflix. If you came for the swagger and strategy you got from The Queen's Gambit, this scratches a similar itch, only with receipts. It is a portrait of a singular player who decided the ceiling did not apply to her, then proved it match after match, year after year.