When “The Queen’s Gambit” became a smash hit on Netflix, a chess institute in Pittsburgh with a similar name got plenty of online attention — both good and bad.

“We’ve been getting so many tags on social media, and specifically Twitter,” said Ashley Lynn Priore, president of The Queen’s Gambit Chess Institute in Pittsburgh. “Normally I don’t mind that, but people are asking really strange questions like ‘What are the drugs Beth uses in the show, and can we get some?’”

The show follows the exploits of fictional prodigy Beth Harmon, who battles addiction as she rises through the ranks of competitive chess in the 1960s. Roughly 62 million households watched the show in the four weeks following its October debut, according to Netflix.

Its success — combined with people looking for indoor activities during the coronavirus pandemic — has caused the popularity of chess to explode, in Pittsburgh and nationwide.

“There’s so many people who want to play chess,” Priore said.

The Queen’s Gambit institute in Shadyside hosts chess lessons and events. It’s typically focused on youth programming, but lately has started offering events for adults who are new to the game, Priore said. All events are online due to the pandemic.

At Games Unlimited in Squirrel Hill, chess sets have been flying off the shelves.

“We sold out of all our beginner chess sets over the past month,” said owner Kylie Prymus. “(People) are buying sets and they’re asking ‘Have you seen the show?’”

Interest in chess started growing months ago, accelerated by the success of “The Queen’s Gambit,” The Washington Post reported. Homebound hobby-seekers turned to online chess for entertainment during the pandemic, and started watching pros who livestreamed games on sites like Twitch.tv.

The Pittsburgh Chess Club started an online group on Chess.com several years ago, but it didn’t attract significant interest until recently, according to club President Mark Jeromin. There were less than 10 members at the start of the year, now there’s more than 160.

Some are existing club members who have started playing online due to the cancellation of in-person events, others are newcomers.

“It’s nice to see, I think people have accepted the pandemic and chosen to create goals while they’re inside during this time,” Jeromin said. “There’s so many reasons why somebody comes back to chess, or starts for the first time, and something like ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ show can serve as a catalyst.”

The club hosts regular online tournaments.

Grandmaster Alex Shabalov, a Squirrel Hill resident and four-time U.S. Chess champion, binge-watched “The Queen’s Gambit” with his wife in a single evening. The show included lots of period-accurate details that would only be noticed by hardcore chess enthusiasts, he said.

“Whoever was the consultant of the show did a very good job,” he said.

There was one significant way in which the show differs from real life, according to Priore. The fictional Harmon faces some sexism, but most of the men she meets encourage her ambitions.

That’s not always the case for real women in chess, Priore said.

“People say some really nasty things,” she said. “I encountered a lot of sexism when I was younger.”

Shabalov compared the current chess boom to the U.S. poker boom of the mid 2000s, when the ability to play online created thousands of new card sharks.

It remains to be seen whether the newfound popularity of chess will sustain itself, or fizzle out as players realize just how hard it is to become a grandmaster, Shabalov said.

“It takes years to develop as a competitive player, even if you start early,” he said said. “Unfortunately you cannot really learn the game over the course of a few months.”

Priore said she tries to teach people that mastery is not the point of chess. Not everyone is a prodigy, but she believes anyone can benefit from learning the game.

“Anyone can play chess, it’s about what it teaches you, not about becoming a competitive chess player,” she said.

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