Finally getting around to posting this review, even though I wrote it like a year ago! #lifehappened
Now, I’ll readily admit that I don’t usually watch a lot of movies/TV series — preferring the company of books over them. But sometimes I come across such wonderful stories on TV/movies that I get hooked.
I first started watching The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix apprehensively… I wasn't sure what to expect but per the usual standard of Netflix - the show was shot so well, the story narration so good that I was obsessed by episode 2 . My brother was kind enough to gift me the book the series was adapted from when I came to know about it. This is how I started reading about the genius that is Beth Harmon.
Characters like Beth — similar to maybe Lisbeth Salander from The Millennium Trilogy have always had a special place in my heart. Quite simply, it is because they’re so imperfectly perfect in their brilliance.
Beth Harmon literally makes the whole story. Orphaned at a young age and sent off to a decrepit Christian orphanage, Beth has to live through the drastic change to her life but hey, it helps that she likes the little green pills the staff gives the children to behave and also that she is fascinated by that funny little game Mr. William Shaibel, the janitor plays.
And that’s how Beth gets addicted to tranquilizers but also becomes a prodigy at chess. Can you imagine, a chess genius being born out of a dusty old basement — mastering this intricate game with the help of a janitor! But also, keep your thoughts on the fact that a little girl felt so isolated and ignored by the authorities who were supposed to care for children like her that she turned to pills for solace at such a young age.
The Queen’s Gambit takes us through Beth’s life growing up as a chess prodigy, getting adopted and going up against the giants in the chess world — the Russian grandmasters, to make herself a place in what at that time was said to be “ a man’s world”. Honestly, what a badass.
Beth is complex. She’s by no means a good Christian girl, is shown to be different and separate from her peers at school (part of it because she herself can’t find any common ground with them). Clearly, she’s a genius at chess but also she knows she’s a genius — which means she doesn’t like to lose — as rarely as that seems to happen at first. When her adoptive father leaves her mother Alma, she doesn’t care — only concerned about how to improve her game — and this seems to be a constant. She only seems to care about chess.
Beth is emotional though — she just doesn’t process them in a healthy way, I would say. She turns to alcohol and pills for support but then she’s also intelligent enough to stop and pace herself if only because it would affect her game. Beth being a sore loser is a theme that continues to drive the story forward — eventually managing to outsmart who she feels is her biggest rival. How she climbs out of a pit of addiction to reach that point is the story though. And it’s an interesting one!
Woven into her story are a few recurring characters who in my opinion are an important part of the journey as well. Alma Wheatley, her adoptive mother is herself nursing a mild addiction to tranquilizers and the like — the author very subtly portrays the hopelessness of a middle-aged suburban wife whose husband is bored of her. Jolene, Beth’s closest ally/friend at Methuen gives a view of how coloured people were treated in that times (as if it has changed even now!) never managing to get adopted, in comparison to Beth who did get adopted only because she was white. Then there’s Benny Watts and Harry Beltik, both fellow chess players who train/play against her at one point. Her relationship with them is always at a backseat to the skill she hones while playing with them — providing a stark contrast to the priorities Beth has.
I am not smart enough to know all the chess moves detailed in the book but I do appreciate the work the author has put in and the immense research and attention to detail it would have taken to write those chess matches out. Kudos to Walter Tevis for writing such a goddamn amazing story! If you want to read something different and interesting, this is the book for you. And to all my friends who prefer watching over reading, The Queen’s Gambit is available on Netflix; Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon is a revelation.
