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The Queen's Gambit

Walter Tevis

4.24 · Rating details · 21,153 ratings · 2,783 reviews

Eight year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control. By the age of sixteen, she's competing for the U.S. Open championship. But as she hones her skills on the professional ...more

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359 pages

Published May 1989 by Dell - Laurel (first published February 5th 1983)

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Nov 06, 2020 Joe Valdez rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-general

The Queen's Gambit is the first novel I've read in some time that I looked forward to cracking open in the evening to finish. Rather than simply wanting to get through it, I didn't want it to end. Published in 1983, the title has multiplied its Google searches in the last month by virtue of a successful Netflix mini-series. Walter Tevis is an author who'd been on my radar for a while though, with several science fiction novels, as well as The Hustler and its sequel The Color of Money. With The Q ...more

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Jun 26, 2019 Sam Quixote rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Blimey o’reilly, The Queen’s Gambit was an absolutely stonking good novel – the best I’ve read in ages! Why hasn’t anyone ever told me to read Walter Tevis before?! He’s an utterly fantabulous writer!

Set in 1950s/60s America, Beth Harmon is an orphaned chess prodigy who rises up through the ranks to become the American No.1 and heads across the Iron Curtain to take on the World Champion: the intimidating Russian Borgov!

The story is a bildungsroman but also about genius and addiction. In the or Blimey o’reilly, The Queen’s Gambit was an absolutely stonking good novel – the best I’ve read in ages! Why hasn’t anyone ever told me to read Walter Tevis before?! He’s an utterly fantabulous writer!

Set in 1950s/60s America, Beth Harmon is an orphaned chess prodigy who rises up through the ranks to become the American No.1 and heads across the Iron Curtain to take on the World Champion: the intimidating Russian Borgov!

The story is a bildungsroman but also about genius and addiction. In the orphanage Beth becomes addicted to tranquillisers, then later on discovers alcohol and uses both to get her through the increasingly challenging tournaments. Which only adds to the fascinating nature of Beth’s character: rare, incomprehensible talent coupled with a very relatable human frailty. Tevis shows us his idea of how a chess prodigy might operate – partly through mental visualisation, partly through an unspoken instinct manifesting without clear articulation – which is convincing if probably not wholly accurate.

I’ve played chess but I’m by no means a chess player – I wouldn’t even call myself an amateur, I’m that unskilled! – and yet I found it riveting to read a book filled with chess matches! The matches are genuinely tense and thrilling to read even without understanding the moves as they’re being described - that’s how accessible and interesting Tevis makes chess. He really was an enormously gifted writer.

Beth’s relationships were all awkward but touching in their way. From learning chess from the orphanage’s janitor Mr Shaibel, to her cheerful but fragile foster mom Mrs Wheatley, to her first couple of boyfriends, and her best friend Jolene – they were all compelling, though ultimately we see Beth as she always felt: isolated and alone. Partly through her intellect, partly through unfortunate circumstances, though it makes her subsequent addictions more understandable.

Tevis’ prose is mesmerising and the pages flew by. It’s such a smooth and effortlessly gripping read – I’ve read thrillers that were less exciting than this novel about CHESS of all things! There really isn’t a single thing I can think of to critique in the slightest.

I loved The Queen’s Gambit totally and obviously I’m recommending it to everyone – and now I’m off to check out all of Tevis’ other novels that I’ve been missing! ...more

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Oct 30, 2020 Elyse Walters rated it liked it · review of another edition

While I enjoyed this book about a young orphan girl....
who became addicted to prescription medication—
while at the same time became addicted to the game chess....
Grows into a brilliant world chess champion....
I found myself more interested in her drug addiction ( something that thank heavens I have no personal experience with), her history, and relationships than ‘reading’ about the specific pieces on the board being played - ( knights, ponds, rooks, queens, bishop, kings, check or checkmate) . ...more

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Dec 08, 2020 BlackOxford rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american

The Tragedy of Success

The Queens Gambit is about professional chess in the same way that David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is about professional tennis. That is to say, the core of the book is about how we use our talents to destroy ourselves. In this it is sImilar to Stefan Zweig’s Chess Story which, although written three quarters of a century ago, carries the same warning about the same game.

Beth is a chess prodigy. The first impression of her story might be that she is another Billy Eliot The Tragedy of Success

The Queens Gambit is about professional chess in the same way that David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is about professional tennis. That is to say, the core of the book is about how we use our talents to destroy ourselves. In this it is sImilar to Stefan Zweig’s Chess Story which, although written three quarters of a century ago, carries the same warning about the same game.

Beth is a chess prodigy. The first impression of her story might be that she is another Billy Eliot or a Mozart, a rerun of talent triumphing over adversity. But Walter Tevis has done something unusual. Although the book is written on the third person, the reader gets to know very little about Beth from the outside. The perspective is that of Beth from the inside - what she, feels, thinks. But what she is to herself is opaque. She, like most of us, has no idea that she is neurotic.

Beth is an Objective Introvert in Jungian terms. That is, she is particularly sensitive to the social environment in which she finds herself; and she tends to adapt herself in a variety of ways to that environment. I think it’s fair to say that Objective Introverts are the permanently oppressed in modern society. In ages past, they might end up in monasteries or as quiet functionaries in a family business. But in a competitive corporate society their lack of aggressiveness and apparent malleability makes them seem weak and unserious, unfit for commercial adventure.

Unless, of course, they have some significant talent that allows them to shine - like playing chess. In that case the talent is perceived - by its possessor as well as the rest of society - as a compensation for an otherwise unfortunate personality. Like the autistic savant who can sketch an entire cityscape from memory, the talent is not only a way to fit in but also a route to fame and fortune. Or so it might seem.

Beth compensates for her psychic imbalance using two strategies: chess and dope. Chess provides a focus from which the constant pressure generated by the the world can be mitigated. The dope dulls what’s left of the world and eases the pressure between matches. Outstanding therapy therefore.

The problem of course, as in any self-help regime, is that the remedy quickly becomes part of the problem. As Beth is successful professionally, chess promotes even greater introversion. And the dope becomes a greater intrusion than the rest of the world had ever been. Together they drive her further into what becomes obsessive addiction.

Beth’s personality is not her problem. What gets her in trouble is her compulsion to ‘fix’ her personality. If she could realise that there is no need to do so, she might not be so driven to find competitive success. But she’d probably enjoy chess - and life in general - much more. ...more

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Nov 07, 2020 Anne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, audio, 2020, thriller

11/15/20 Update: After listening to this book I watched the Netflix adaptation and loved it.

Review:
This novel was my "waiting for election results" choice. I tried 3 books previous to this one but was too distracted to become engaged in them. This story, though, heavy on plot, was perfect; I was able to become engaged immediately. I won't discuss the plot because there are already so many reviews of this book on GR. I'll just say do yourself a favor and don't listen to the Audible recording. T ...more

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Feb 15, 2017 Lisa Vegan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Lisa by: Lucille

Shelves: fiction, readbooks-male-author-or-illust, novel, bookclub, favorites, 1-also-at-librarything, thriller, orphaned-and-quasi-orphaned-kids, historical-fiction, reviewed

I love this book. It’s feeling really challenging to try to start my next (any) book because I doubt I’ll enjoy it as much as I liked this one. I have added this one to my favorites shelf.

I’m so grateful that my book club agreed to read this for our March book. For me it was the perfect book at the perfect time. In fact, some of my book club members were having a hard time getting a copy, so I quickly finished the last couple of chapters so that they could read my library copy before its due dat I love this book. It’s feeling really challenging to try to start my next (any) book because I doubt I’ll enjoy it as much as I liked this one. I have added this one to my favorites shelf.

I’m so grateful that my book club agreed to read this for our March book. For me it was the perfect book at the perfect time. In fact, some of my book club members were having a hard time getting a copy, so I quickly finished the last couple of chapters so that they could read my library copy before its due date. That was easy to do. This book was easy to pick up and hard to put down. My preference when reading books is to stop reading at the end of chapters or at least at the end of mid-chapter marked breaks, but with this book I was happy to read until I had to put the book down to do something else. Finishing a sentence was enough for me. I didn’t want to stop reading until I absolutely had to stop.

Beth Harmon is an amazing and memorable character. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her life and reading this amazing coming of age story. I loved both the character and the story.

The secondary characters are also very well drawn out, to just the right amount, in my opinion, and they all also contribute to making this story great.

I don’t even play chess and there is so much in this story that is play by play during chess games, and I had no idea what was going on with the relaying of chess pieces moving on the board or what they meant, yet the descriptions completely held my attention; I was riveted. I was hooked for start to finish. I think if I knew the game of chess I might have gotten even more out of the story, though I have no complaints reading it not knowing the game.

I was afraid I wouldn’t enjoy reading about Beth as much when she aged (age 8 to age 19) but I found her always interesting. In fact, even though the book ended in a satisfying way, I’d read a sequel if there was one. Unfortunately, this book was published in 1983, the author’s seventh book, and he died in 1984, so this is his last book.

The book is a really fast read; it has 243 pages and 14 chapters, some long. The story took a few unexpected turns in the last couple of chapters. I appreciated the twists in the storyline.

This is a story about a girl who’s a chess prodigy but if I had a thrillers shelf I’d use it for this book. It did read like a thriller, especially parts in the middle and the end.

I wouldn’t say that the language is gorgeous, and it’s not a particularly quotable book, but I think that it’s beautifully written. The characters, particularly the main character, are completely believable. It’s a brilliantly constructed book. Though it isn’t a long book and the events take place over only 11 years, it felt like an epic to me.

I’ve always wanted to learn to play chess, though I think the fun would be playing at an advanced level. At this point I doubt I could learn to play past a beginner level, and I certainly don’t have the aptitude to play the way the best chess players can play. It seems as though it would be a thrill to be able to play at a top level. I got a bit of vicarious satisfaction from “watching” Beth play the game. This book made me even more curious and interested in the game. If I had read this as a teen or young adult I’ll bet I’d have made an effort to learn and play chess games.

Highly recommended. Particularly recommended for those who enjoy coming of age stories, orphan stories, those have an interest in chess, physical fitness, addiction, mentoring, and feminism. ...more

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Dec 16, 2013 Andrew Smith rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I read somewhere that this is one of Lawrence Block's favourite stories. Well, if it's good enough for LB...
I'd enjoyed chess as a child and recall the hype and excitement surrounding the world championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, in the 70's. This book captures the excitement chess can evoke (trust me) - and you don't even have to have played the game to enjoy it.
The story of an eight year old orphan who transforms her life through chess is brilliantly told. I was sad whe ...more

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Oct 28, 2020 Anthony rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-american-lit

This is, quite simply, a fantastic novel. Wholly immersive, exciting, and human, it combines in completely satisfying prose the the unlikely pairing of a fascinating portrait of a brilliant and complicated young woman with the page-turning suspense of a great thriller in its depiction of high-stakes chess tournaments. I love chess, and I wonder how readers who don’t would feel about this novel, but for me Tevis elegantly and accessibly makes manifest the particular and singular joy of discoverin ...more

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Dec 27, 2020 Chris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Utterly loved this novel -- every bit as much as I savored the TV series. Who knew chess could be so freaking tense? Also, Beth Harmon is a fascinating creation: a savant with deep scars. Charismatic and messy. Every page of the novel is alive with both possibility and dread. PS: Once again I simply forget to post my review here weeks ago. Trust me, this isn't a month-long read. I devoured it in days. ...more

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Sep 10, 2015 Lynne King rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: a-must-to-read, fiction-us, 6-star-rating, top-favourite-books, chess, 2016-books-to-be-read

At eighteen, Beth Harmon has established herself as the queen of American chess. She may be the most gifted player since Morphy or Capablanca; no one knows just how gifted she is – how great a potential she holds in that young girl’s body with its dazzling brain. To find out, to show the world if America has outgrown its inferior status in world chess, she will have to go where the big boys are. She will have to go to the Soviet Union.

Imagine this story though. Beth, a plain, shy eight year At eighteen, Beth Harmon has established herself as the queen of American chess. She may be the most gifted player since Morphy or Capablanca; no one knows just how gifted she is – how great a potential she holds in that young girl’s body with its dazzling brain. To find out, to show the world if America has outgrown its inferior status in world chess, she will have to go where the big boys are. She will have to go to the Soviet Union.

Imagine this story though. Beth, a plain, shy eight year old becomes homeless when her parents are killed in a car crash. She had no choice in the matter but to be taken to the Methuem Home in Mount Sterling in Kentucky. Here she, as were all the other children, was given a tranquilizer twice a day to even their dispositions. Regrettably she was going to become addicted to these …

But Beth’s life is transformed when she is asked to go into the basement to clean the blackboard erasers. She sees Mr Shaibel, the janitor, playing a game on a board and by himself and soon finds out that it is called chess. She never would understand what caused her fascination with this game but she managed to persuade the janitor to teach her. Beth soon discovers remarkable chess openings, such as the Sicilian defense, the Queen’s Gambit and the Stonewall Attack. She proves to be a natural and soon she receives her first chess rating. Beth in no time at all is the American Chess Champion. However, along the way she finds out what disappointment can be in a male-dominated chess world and at what price. And as for the ending, well...

I found the chess sequences absolutely riveting. Beth actually planned the moves out in advance in her head and ended up stunning everyone with her play. Plus throw in her adoption, and her mother Mrs Wheatley, upon seeing how good Beth is with chess, soon encourages her to enter all the chess tournaments. Also Beth’s various relationships certainly helped her no end and then she meets the Russian Grandmasters.

I'm not at all surprised that the author is no stranger to chess. He learned to play as a seven year old and is now a class C player.

I was really taken with the title and upon research found out that the Queen's Gambit is one of the oldest known chess openings. It was mentioned in the Göttingen manuscript of 1490.

I play chess but really badly. Nevertheless, this book has certainly encouraged me to try and improve my game.

This remarkable gem has been languishing on my bookshelf for five months. Why I haven’t read it before I really don’t know but I’m glad I finally did.

Overall, this is a poignant, multi-faceted, exquisitely written and stunning book.
...more

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Nov 24, 2020 K. Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: very-good-but-not-phenomenal, 4-stars, fiction, kindle, library-books, original-idea, reviewed

What an exhilarating read! Though, I must admit, I felt like the beginning of the book was stronger than the end. That said, the overall story was unique and fast-paced. And the characters, which if anyone knows me understands that's the most important aspect of a novel (in my eyes), were flawed and realistic, which I absolutely loved.

Can't wait to watch the show! ...more

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Jan 02, 2021 Corina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fiction, standalone

My first book of 2021

POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE - A book set in multiple countries

4.5 stars

Amazing book!!!

And of course I wish I had read the book first. But I must say the TV show is exactly like the book. They did a marvelous job following the book. And now after I watched the show and listened to the audiobook I can say that the book is as fascinating as the show.

The Queen's Gambit was one of my most favorite shows of 2020, and it's the one show I have been recommending nonstop. So, if you h ...more

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Dec 07, 2020 Dave Schaafsma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: addiction, fiction-20th-century

So maybe you are one of the purportedly 62 million people who have seen (the truly wonderful) Queen’s Gambit series, and I don’t have to tell you anything about it. But have you also read the book, that I was listening to as I saw the series and finished it the next day, a couple days ago? Though I and the world are aware of Walter Tevis’s novels that became blockbuster movies--The Hustler, The Color of Money, The Man Who Fell to Earth--I think this is the first of his novels that I have read, a So maybe you are one of the purportedly 62 million people who have seen (the truly wonderful) Queen’s Gambit series, and I don’t have to tell you anything about it. But have you also read the book, that I was listening to as I saw the series and finished it the next day, a couple days ago? Though I and the world are aware of Walter Tevis’s novels that became blockbuster movies--The Hustler, The Color of Money, The Man Who Fell to Earth--I think this is the first of his novels that I have read, and wonderful it is, too. I read picture books to balance out my reading of climate change and dystopia, and this sort of works out that way for me, too: A feel-good story that is also really well and persuasively written. I read somewhere that the (high end) novelist Michael Ondaatje reads this book every couple years to remind him how to write a novel, and I can see that. It’s so good and entertaining!

The story millions of you already know, but let me highlight some of it, at least. It’s the story of Beth Harmon, a girl prodigy chess player, set in the last sixties, published in 1983. It should not escape you that in the late sixties a lot was going on: VietNam, the killing of MLK and the Kennedys, the Civil Rights movement, the rise of environmentalism and the second wave of feminism. Teavis ignores almost all of that to focus in this alternative historical fantasy on chess, one of his real lifelong loves--including poker, pool, drinking. . --The Cold War and. . . feminism!

The story is a rags to riches story as improbable as it is satisfying. A little girl orphaned by the death of her (in the movie, not the book) brilliant mathematician mother in what may be a suicide (in the movie we know this for sure) learns how to play chess from the janitor at the orphanage and is clearly a prodigy right from the beginning, at age eight. You know orphan stories from Dickens. We pull for the underdog. But Beth also gets addicted to tranquilizers from the school, which leads to the central tension of the story: Will she, like so many sudden young American celebrities, destroy her talent through drugs and alcohol (her next addiction)?

Random reflections: This book is more a coming of age story as much as it is about chess, though everyone that has a chess board is now dusting it off for the December 2020 holidays, or buying one (300 % increase in reported sales) based on the infectious and knowledgeable enthusiasm Tevis expresses for the game he loved all his life. Those of us Americans who are old enough to recall the matches one could see on television between American Bobby Fischer and Kasparov, Karpov, Spassky and other (mostly Russian) Chess Grandmasters appreciate the blast from the past this book gives you about a world aflame with the love of. . . chess??!! But it was real, trust me, millions watched these matches worldwide and loved them even if it was all a bit over our heads.

Tevis only has Beth make one explicit political statement in finally refusing monetary support to get to the World Championships from Moscow from a Christian organization that wants her to use her fame to denounce the “Markist/Atheist” Russia. She’s not going to do that. Another, possibly more subtle one, is that Beth undermines the Cold War ideology by honoring The Russians in many ways. The Russians honor tradition, dignity, and the history of the game. Benny tells Beth that one of the reasons the Russians rule in Chess is that they work together to support each other (cue Biden speech on how to beat the pandemic) whereas Americans compete against each other in individualist silos.

It’s not until Beth gets the call from NYC and her friends advise her that she finally realizes the full extent of what might be called a communist ideal, the power of the collective vs (merely) cowboy competitiveness. She learns from Harry and Benny, she reads the books of chess masters history at their suggestions, and in the end, she just simply plays chess with an older Russian man in the park who does not know her name, just for the love of it.

The feminism? Beth resents being seen as a (mere) girl, as a token. She wants to survive, as her old orphanage friend does, on her own terms. Beth’s adopted mother “had to” get married, and Beth wants independence, to stand on her own as a woman. Russia cheers her more than any other country, for her skill, not her gender.

I really really liked this book a lot!

Fun facts from Wikipedia:
In 1978 Nona Gaprindashvili became the first female Grandmaster. Judit Polgár is the only female player to have defeated the reigning world number one in a game, which occurred when she beat Garry Kasparov in 2002 at the age of 26. Polgar (born in 1976), a Hungarian chess player, is generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time.
...more

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Nov 09, 2020 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-tbr-shelf, audiobook

The Queen's Gambit, about a female chess prodigy, is loaded with chess games: chess strategy, openings, middle game, endings. I know nothing about chess, the audiobook was poorly narrated and I did not particularly like Beth Harmon - yet I was still riveted! A testament to Tevis' strong writing! ...more

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Sep 08, 2015 Warwick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, chess, united-states

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Jun 28, 2011 Jeremy Bagai rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, games-and-gambling

I so adore this book.

The twin passions of games (order, clarity, focus, beauty, creativity, competition, transcendence) and addiction (chaos, release, abdication, destruction, waste). Loneliness and alienation. Redemption.

Tevis works these themes in all his books. The Hustler (most similarly), The Man Who Fell to Earth (most wrenchingly).

But I think Queen's Gambit is his best. The writing is pure and invisible. The tension, excitement, and suspense brought out by the chess matches is unreal, an ...more

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Jan 06, 2021 Jonathan K rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For aspiring chess players

Rating: 3.5 stars
I was drawn to this story due to the popularity of the Netflix series which I'd never seen. A lover of the game and fan of 'Searching for Bobby Fischer', I found it engaging on many fronts. Similar to Josh Waitzkin, Beth is gifted child with a unique talent. An adopted orphan, her foster mother is emotionally distant but supportive. Once she realizes how gifted her daughter is, she sees dollar signs and acts as a manager. As a character, Beth is relati ...more

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Dec 20, 2020 Mehenaz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

As much as I wished to have discovered the book before the TV show, that didn't stop the words from amusing me. Even if you don't know what any of the chess pieces do and have no interest in chess, Beth alone can make up for all that. What a character she is! She deserves more appreciation and acknowledgement as one of the most well-developed femme fatale. So, here's a tribute to the one who's "unapologetically feminine," yet not a goddess without flaws.

Instagram: @tishamonten ...more

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Apr 29, 2020 Joy D rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, addictions, games, north-america, zck, coming-of-age, reviewed

Set in the 1950s and 1960s, Elizabeth Harmon is a chess prodigy with addiction issues. She learns chess at age eight from a janitor at her orphanage and obviously has a gift for the game. When she is adopted at age twelve, she eventually gets a chance to compete in tournaments. Her addiction issues originate in the practice of medicating children to keep them subdued and losing her parents at a young age.

The chess tournaments are well-crafted, and the author creates a sense of dramatic tension. ...more

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Jun 24, 2018 John Martin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm a tad biased rating this. In my youth, I was a chess junkie. The rise of Bobby Fischer coincided with my early adolescence. Thus I understand some of the technical stuff in this book and I can appreciate descriptions of well-turned wooden chess men. But putting nostalgia aside, I wonder if slabs of the narrative would be inaccessible to non chess players. The book was written in the early 1980s. The writing style might have been cutting-edge then but things have moved on in 35 years. Ditto t ...more

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Sep 12, 2020 Lee rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Quite possibly a perfect example of a certain type of taut, pulsating novel -- and a lesson in precision and how to mesmerise your readers. And Tevis should have way more.

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Nov 15, 2020 Alicia Groscost rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

You don't have to play chess to like this book!

I absolutely loved this, but will admit I did this in backwards order by watching the Netflix Series first. Once I was part of the way through the series I confirmed it had started as book and then promptly switched over. The book had little nuances that were different, but overall the book and the series were very much aligned. The characters are well thought out and I really don't see how the book or the series could have been improved! ...more

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Oct 25, 2020 Wendy'sThoughts rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Walter Tevis Fans

December 8, 2020-UPDATE
When I find out about something I loved, I want to share it with everyone. I loved The Queen's Gambit, a mini-series on Netflix based on the book by Walter Tevis. The main character was done by the brilliant actor, Anya Taylor-Joy, and was written and directed by Scott Frank. (See Review Below)

Well, these two talented people are at it again! They have taken on a new project, Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov. I can only imagine it will be as captivating as the other December 8, 2020-UPDATE
When I find out about something I loved, I want to share it with everyone. I loved The Queen's Gambit, a mini-series on Netflix based on the book by Walter Tevis. The main character was done by the brilliant actor, Anya Taylor-Joy, and was written and directed by Scott Frank. (See Review Below)

Well, these two talented people are at it again! They have taken on a new project, Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov. I can only imagine it will be as captivating as the other project they did.

For all the skinny on this, here is the article that caught my eye compelling me to share.
https://www.nylon.com/entertainment/a...

Laughter in the Dark (Vintage International) by Vladimir Nabokov

Laughter In The Dark
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Queen's Gambit
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
5 Fantastic Series Stars
* * * * * Spoiler Free-A Netflix Review
Yes, I am doing it again, reviewing a book I didn't read but saw on Netflix. When I read briefly about this series, The Queen's Gambit coming, it sounded like something I would enjoy. Well, I just binged all seven episodes, roughly an hour each and it was at the beginning of the second one where I hit pause to see if there was a book it was based on. My instincts were correct because I discovered the book right away.

And Major Side Note, I had no idea Walter Tevis, the author, was responsible for the books of movies I so appreciated, Hustler and The Color of Money. If you are a Paul Neuman fan (and you should be) these are works not to be missed.

So this series is wonderful in my opinion. It is of a certain time in America, a young girl orphaned and taken to be raised in an institution. She is highly intelligent and somehow finds her way to learning chess from the janitor there. This girl has experienced trauma early and by nine she has her walls up.

It is the meeting of the janitor at the orphanage that changes her life. She watches him play chess in the basement and asks for lessons. After a very short time, she soon is beating him. This is the start of her assent to the world of chess. At this time, girls didn't play and she was an underestimated oddity.

This is a complicated tale of much more than chess and the people who adapted this story made everything fit like a puzzle. The acting was intense and touching when it needed to be. I really could not stop until the very end.

An Insightful Look From Netflix-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzDhp...

For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways

...more

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Nov 30, 2020 Andy Marr marked it as dnf · review of another edition

Positively pawnographic.

Truly, the chess descriptions in this book were so gratuitous, they made Bobby Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games seem tame by comparison. It's a shame, because there was a fantastic underdog story hidden in its pages, and just desperate to get out... ...more

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Dec 20, 2020 Eugenia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fiction, historical

GAHHHHHH!! ❤️👏❤️👏❤️👏 Sooooo GOOD!

FANTASTIC NARRATION!
Amazing coming of age story.

From
8 yo - 19 yo
Orphanage - adoption
Addiction - sobriety
Chess - chess - chess
Sexism - sexism

I’ve not seen the show on Netflix, but now I surely will.

Even if you don’t know the vagaries of chess, you can follow the path of a child prodigy playing the best players in the world and overcoming obstacles set by society and her own fears.

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Dec 08, 2020 BRIONY rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The story, based in 1950/60s Kentucky America is about an orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon on her rise to becoming the world's leading chess player. Growing up she struggles with emotional issues and drug/alcohol problems. It’s about life, love, friendship and passion. There are not many books that make me feel as strongly as I did whilst reading this. I felt quite lost when I finished it. ...more

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Oct 28, 2020 Jerrie (redwritinghood) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was a great book about chess, feminism, and drug/alcohol addiction. A girl orphaned at age 8 and sent to an orphanage in 1950s Kentucky develops into a chess prodigy who competes at the global level in male-dominated chess competitions. This is the best kind of storytelling - well-drawn characters, a taut storyline, and wonderful prose.

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Nov 06, 2020 Nigeyb rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Queen's Gambit is the second novel I've read by Walter Tevis. As a fanatical teenage David Bowie fan I read The Man Who Fell to Earth back in the late 1970s and which I concluded was every bit as good as Nick Roeg's amazing film adaptation with Bowie playing the lead role. I'm going to reread it at some point to discover how I feel about it a few decades on.

Three of Walter Tevis's six novels were adapted into major films: The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth. The Que ...more

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Nov 26, 2020 Doug rated it it was ok · review of another edition

When our book club decided to read this I initially demurred, since I don't play chess and only know a very rudimentary amount about even HOW it is played, so figured this wouldn't make much sense to me. But the enthusiasm of other members, plus the worldwide acclaim for its new TV adaptation, persuaded me to give it a try. But, sad to say, my initial impulse proved correct.

I think the book's success largely depends upon you really rooting for and caring about Beth's chess wins, but I don't hav ...more

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Nov 22, 2020 Iulia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2020

I read this book after watching (and absolutely loving) the show on Netflix. This is unusual for me, and what's even more unusual is that I enjoyed *gasp* the show a bit more than I did the book. I just feel like the tweaks the producers made to the story actually enriched it, and the 60's atmosphere, somewhat neglected in the book, was brought to life gloriously via sets and wardrobe. I would still recommend both reading The Queen's Gambit and watching its adaptation, what I would like to empha ...more

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About Walter Tevis

Walter Tevis

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Walter Stone Tevis was an American novelist and short story writer. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth. The Queen's Gambit has also been adapted in 2020 into a 7-episode mini-series. His books have been translated into at least 18 languages. ...more

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“It's an entire world of just 64 squares. I feel safe in it. I can control it; I can dominate it. And it's predictable. So, if I get hurt, I only have myself to blame.” — 14 likes

“She had flirted with alcohol for years. Now it was time to consummate the relationship.” — 9 likes

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