Just Finished Reading: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis (FP: 1983) [243pp] 

Beth Harmon is alone. No family, no siblings, no friends. She’s also addicted to pills care of her orphanage. But what she does have is native, raw talent and a rare one at that. Hiding in the basement, supposedly cleaning blackboard rubbers, she is introduced to the game of chess by the janitor. It isn’t long before she’s beating him regularly and not long after that when she’s beating a whole room of High School players. But its only after she’s adopted and her new mother needs money that Beth realises that her talent can get her places. Tournaments pay top dollar, and Beth is nothing but a winner who needs to win, to prove that she isn’t just an orphan, isn’t just a girl. To do that being just State Champion isn’t enough. Even being the best player in the United States is only a stepping stone to her true ambition – to be the best player in the world. To do that, however, she will need to do something truly outstanding, unheard of... She’ll need to beat the Russians at a game that seems designed for them, and she’ll need to do it in Moscow. But to do that she’ll need a lot more than raw talent. 

I used to play chess quite a lot in my mid-teens with a school friend. Honestly, I wasn’t very good, and he regularly beat me. But after a few months of gameplay, I finally beat him and he stepped up his game, so I began losing again. Until, a few weeks later I beat him again... and again... Then we stopped. Even at me ‘best’ I could probably see 2-3 moves ahead and enjoyed the mental challenge more than anything else. But, over the years, I’ve still retained an interest in the game. So, after seeing this book (and being aware of the series on Netflix) I picked it up. 

Going in I wasn’t expecting much. I didn’t like my previous reading of this author (The Color of Money) and this probably explained the fact that I enjoyed it much more than expected. Harmon herself is a deeply damaged character with almost no fellow feeling. But she is very much the product of her rather inhuman upbringing in a rather strange orphanage that drugged its inmates in order to ‘calm them’ into a more manageable state. Unsurprisingly Harmon became addicted to ‘happy’ pills and, whenever she couldn’t get them, alcohol. Her lack of early human connection stunted her ability to relate to anyone (including herself) and, again unsurprisingly, she began to interact with people as if they were chess pieces on a much wider board with Harmon trying to work out the rules.  

One of the things I continually wondered about – only having a general low-level knowledge of the game of chess – was how accurate the games were in the story. I’m guessing that they must have been pretty good otherwise the novel and the later adaptation would’ve come in for some serious criticism. Either way, despite skimming some of the longer chess passages, I enjoyed watching the gameplay and her struggle to become the best of the best. Overall, I thought the book had a good solid ‘feel’ to it. Beth wasn’t exactly likable – at all actually – but she was, I felt, understandable and I did (generally) feel sorry for her throughout. It was rather annoying how resistant she was to seeking help (for multiple problems) but, again, the reasons for this dated back to her early years as well as her (wrong) belief that simple raw talent was going to be enough to power through. On balance I’d say I enjoyed this novel (unexpectedly!) It certainly stuck around in my head for a while after turning the last page. I even added a few chess related books to my Wish List. That must mean something. Reasonably recommended.