India, Feb. 6 -- If The Queens Gambit instilled in you the idea of a solitary genius girl breaking down male chess dominance with each checkmate, Queen of Chess gently brings the message home that the fictional story was late to the game. Before Beth Harmon came to represent female genius in sports, there was Judit Polgar: a real person and a strong-willed character who was not interested in being told what girls and women were incapable of. You could see her as a real-world Beth Harmon character minus the character arc and the loneliness. Here is what to know about the heroine of Queen of Chess, and her true story.

Queen of Chess takes place in the testosterone-filled world of late 20th-century competitive chess. It tells the story of a...