The Queen's Gambit Chess: Moscow Environment Deep Dive

Making Of / 28 September 2023

This week on the Ripstone ArtStation Blog, we take a closer look at The Queen’s Gambit Chess’ two Moscow environments; Moscow Invitational and The Park.

How Our Rockwater Artists Remade The Show’s Two Moscow Settings

With its dramatic lighting, high ceilings and intimidating shadows, the Moscow Invitational Hall is one of the most iconic locations from The Queen’s Gambit miniseries. This incredible space is also the setting for Beth Harmon’s major triumph over Vasily Borgov in the final of the 1968 Moscow Invitational Tournament. Wanna know how we recreated it? Let me hand you over to the Rockwater Art Team!

“With our recreation of the Moscow Invitational environment, we aimed to capture the same daunting look and feel as the show. We spent a lot of time matching the lighting and those long shadows to reference shots. It was really important for us to give players that eerie feeling of being exposed and observed in such a foreboding hall.

I think we achieved this by pulling out all the stops to ensure we reproduced that grand sense of scale. With this being such a pivotal setting in the show, we wanted players to feel like Beth did. She’s sort of exhibited in this unfamiliar space, with her every move being scrutinised more than ever before.” - Jake Parrott, Rockwater Senior 3D Artist

Being one of the very few exterior chess-playing locations in The Queen’s Gambit series, our second Moscow environment, Moscow Park, was an opportunity for our art team to flex their expertise in different ways.

Here, the team worked to create a unique and natural ambience. Lighting, again, was key as they utilised the brightness of the winter sun, all while being faithful to the overcast skies and biting cold of the show.

"This environment was one of the most challenging we tackled, as we had to bring an exterior scene with longer lines of sight to mobile devices." - Jake Parrott, Rockwater Senior 3D Artist

Finding a way to create a convincing depiction of Beth's vision was no mean feat. Across the rest of the game, the board is placed on a ceiling. Here, we found a nice way of working it into the clouds.

The Details: Moscow

The deeper details really make the space sing. Let’s take a closer look at the aspects of the show our art team recreated in the game.

The Playing Area - Moscow Invitational

Beth bests Borgov from a playing area at the centre of this hall, and our artists recreated almost everything that she would see; from the intricate marble floors to the dramatic chandeliers and uplights that work give the space its unmistakable atmosphere.

“Most of the drama of the show’s final episode takes place at the centre of this hall. We focused on bringing it to life in the game by replicating the lighting, the marble flooring and even the table itself using as much detail as we could.” - Jake Parrott, 3D Artist

The Playing Area - Moscow Park

The playing area of The Park environment is just as detailed in its representation of one of the key settings of the show. An example of this comes in the form of the wooden chessboard, which our art team realistically weathered to make it feel worn in and exposed to the elements.

The 2D Board - Moscow Invitational

In the Moscow Invitational environment, if choosing to play using the 2D board, players will be treated to this impressive vertical chessboard.

“This should be instantly familiar to fans of the show. The wall-mounted chessboard’s design is based on the giant boards that tournament officials use to keep the crowd informed of the moves Harmon and Borgov make.” - Matt Beech, Rockwater Senior Artist

The 2D Board - Moscow Park

Up Next on Ripstone’s ArtStation

Thanks for taking a look at our deep dive into The Queen’s Gambit Chess' Moscow environments. Wanna find out more about the making of the game? Check out our previous articles including more behind-the-scenes insights:

Coming up: an interview with Paul Hughes, Rockwater Head of Technology. We'll be exploring the relationship between Art and Programming and why we chose Unreal Engine to develop our game!