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Don't be surprised if someone you love is hoping to find a chess board under the tree this Christmas

Don't be surprised if someone you love is hoping to find a chess board under the tree this Christmas.

A popular Netflix show is being credited with renewing interest in the game.

The president of Chess Nova Scotia says he's been flooded with phone calls since The Queen's Gambit hit the streaming service.

The series follows a young girl named Beth Harmon who has a natural talent for the game. As she grows older, the prodigy starts entering and winning tournaments around the world.

"They found a way to get inside of a person's mind with the graphics that they use," Ken Cashin told NEWS 95.7's The Rick Howe Show.

"There's a lot to it, a real complexity to thinking ahead and the different variations in the moves. They did a great job of showing everything that's involved in the moves."

Cashin said it's a game that's fairly easy topick up, but it does require strategic thinking.

"To learn the moves is probably no harder than some card games," he explained. "The challenge is, to get better at chess, you really have to think. You have to think your way out of a problem, you have to see your way through all these obstacles."

He's hoping the surge in popularity will result in seeing more faces at local tournaments in the coming years.

Right now, in-person play has been suspended due to COVID-19.

"Our last tournament was February and then everything after that was cancelled ... but we're hopeful for next year," Cashin said. "We had a national level tournament we wanted to put on, the Atlantic All-Ages Chess Festival, but we had to postpone that now, probably until 2022."

On the upside, that will give people plenty of time to sharpen their chess skills.

Cashin recommends heading to chess.com where you can take lessons orplay against people from all over the globe.

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Netflix show credited with renewing interest in chess - HalifaxToday.ca