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.
