The Queen's Gambit - Walter Tevis

   1983; 243 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Chess; Contemporary Fiction; Coming of Age.  Laurels: Adapted for the 2020 Netflix series of the same name.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    It was the worst of times.  Eight-year-old Beth Harmon survived a car crash that killed her mother and landed Beth in an orphanage.  But in retrospect there was a silver lining: it was at the orphanage that Beth was introduced to a fascinating game, and by Mr. Shaibel the janitor, no less.

 

    Chess.

 

    At first, Mr. Shaibel only allowed her to watch him play it by himself, moving both the Black and White pieces on a green-and-white checkerboard he’d set up in the basement.  That was interesting, and little Beth found she could do that in her head at night, by simply imagining the board and randomly moving the pieces.

 

    Then one day Mr. Shaibel taught her how to actually play and shortly thereafter Beth lost her first game of chess, to him, via something Mr. Shaibel called “The Scholar’s Mate”.  But now that she knew how each piece moved, Beth could lay awake at night, making real moves in her mind, until she found a way to parry the Scholar’s Mate.

 

    And never again lose a game to Mr. Shaibel.

 

What’s To Like...

    Why is it that every world chess champion so far has been a male?

 

    To break that streak would be a major undertaking, but based on all the recent world chess champions, it most certainly would start with a young girl being found to be a chess prodigy.  Walter Tevis’s The Queen’s Gambit envisions Beth Harmon being such a wunderkind, and we follow her from an 8-year-old coming to grips with life in an orphanage to a 19-year-old trying to figure out how to outplay the (Russian) reigning world champion.

 

    Along the way, Beth learns how to resign when a chess position is hopelessly lost (which she doesn’t like), how to read and write chess notations, the wonders of a book called Modern Chess Openings, how to use a chess clock, and the thrill of playing, winning, and collecting the prize money in chess tournaments.   Beth beams after each of those advancements, and I thought the author caught the “feel” of playing in chess tournaments particularly well.

 

    But with fame comes frailty and Walter Tevis portrays Beth as a flawed character.  She battles addictions, steals from those who trust her, and (horror of horrors!) steals from bookstores.  Her capers have mixed results: sometimes she gets away with them, sometimes she gets caught, and sometimes the addictions cost her chess games.

 

    It's no surprise that The Queen’s Gambit is a very “chessy” book.  The names of several dozen openings are mentioned (all real), as well a number of famous chess grandmasters of the past, although Walter Tevis abstains (and IMO, rightfully so) from subjecting any presently-active (in 1983) chess greats to the embarrassment of losing to up-and-coming Beth.  I liked that he refrains from implying that misogyny runs rampant in the male-dominated chess world.  Yes, the best chess players hate to lose, but they hate losing to women, men, oldsters, youngsters, computers, and every other category.  Simply put, they hate to lose.  To anyone.  It's part of what makes them great.

 

    The ending – a key game with the current chess champion – is a mixed bag.  There really aren’t any surprises: things go bad for Beth at first, but she pulls herself together, rallies at the chessboard, and achieves the predictable result.  The game is not for the world championship, so there’s room for a sequel, but I doubt it will be ever written, especially since The Queen’s Gambit is now a Netflix series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 14,730 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.21*/5, based on 56,191 ratings and 7,367 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Precocity (n.) : exceptionally early or premature development.

Others: Inchmeal (adv.).

 

Excerpts...

    “It talks about the orphanage.”  Beth had bought her own copy.  “And it gives one of my games.  But it’s mostly about my being a girl.”

    “Well, you are one.”

    “It shouldn’t be that important,” Beth said.  “They didn’t print half the things I told them.  They didn’t tell about Mr. Shaibel.  They didn’t say anything about how I play the Sicilian.”

    “But, Beth,” Mrs. Wheatley said, “it makes you a celebrity!”

    Beth looked at her thoughtfully.  “For being a girl, mostly,” she said.  (pg. 95)

 

    She leaned wearily back in her chair with her eyes still closed and let the screen of her mind go dark for a moment.  Then she brought it back for a final look.  And this time with a start she saw it.  He had used his bishop for taking her rook and now it could not stop her knight.  The knight would force the king aside.  The white pawn would queen, and mate would follow in four moves.  Mate in nineteen.  (pg. 241)

 

“Firm up your pectorals.”  (…)  “I thought that was a kind of fish.”  (pg. 197 )

    There are a couple of quibbles.

 

    First, be aware that there are adult situations and language in The Queen’s Gambit.  It may be a coming-of-age story, but I wouldn’t recommend this for a six-year-old girl, unless you want to answer questions about sex and drugs and self-destructive behavior.

 

    I found the storyline to be rather straightforward and lacking twists.  Beth kicks chess-butt with very few losses (and no draws!  How is that possible?) on her way to the top, and when her addictions catch up to her, the rehab seemed incredibly quick and easy.

 

    But most obvious and most important, this is a book about chess.  Lots of chess games.  Lots of thinking about chess positions.  Lots of talking about chess.  If you don’t happen to play chess, you’re going to be bored to tears, skipping over oodles of paragraphs, just hoping to get to the non-chess parts.

 

    Fortunately, I’ve played chess all my life, so for me The Queen’s Gambit was entertaining from start to finish.  Can I relate to the pressures Beth faces?  Not really.  I’m good at the game, but not to where becoming a grandmaster was ever a realistic goal.  There's no way I could ever envision or calculate a mate-in-nineteen.

 

    8 Stars.  As of 2021, there still has never been a female world chess champion, but one came extremely close.  She was a Hungarian phenom named Judit Polgar born in 1976 and rated #55 in the world at age 12.  She became an international grandmaster three years later, and had a peak ranking of #8 in the world in 2004.   She has two sisters, one of them is also an international grandmaster, the other is “only” an international master.

 

    The Wikipedia article about her is here, which will give you the Polgar family secret for developing and raising a challenger for the world chess title.  The short answer is: “Nurture over Nature”.  Papa Polgar's method may be controversial, but there's no disputing it worked for each of his three daughters.