Very much agree with your post Ruth. Even if it wasn't chess but a card game, I did a lot of competition from 14 to 20 years old, at a quite high level, and I really loved how they recreated this atmosphere of being surrounded by people who only talk about it, the excitement to meet them, the excitement to be accepted in the "club".
I find the desire to win to be something very toxic, and as you explained the show is very ambiguous about it. This makes the last episode kind of fail on a thematic level.

The last episodes are also not as well paced as the first five imo.