The Queen's Gambit and the next big thing in chess 13 minutes to read Greg Bruce goes in search of something interesting about chess. A few weeks ago, like every other magazine writer in the world, I was tasked with finding a story to cash in on the massive success of The Queen's Gambit - the show that's made chess cool again, despite filling the majority of its running time with close-ups of its star resting her chin elegantly on her hands. My big break arrived in the middle of the annual report by the president of the New Zealand Chess Federation, where I discovered the winner of this year's New Zealand Junior Open (for players up to 20 years old) was 10.