The Queen's Gambit

by Walter Tevis

“The Queen’s Gambit.” She felt better. She had learned something more from him. She decided not to take the offered pawn, to leave the tension on the board. She liked it like that.

“But, Beth,” Mrs. Wheatley said, “it makes you a celebrity!” Beth looked at her thoughtfully, “For being a girl, mostly,” she said.

She was alone, and she liked it. It was the way she had learned everything important in her life.

She had flirted with alcohol for years. It was time to consummate the relationship.

This was not the attack chess she had made her American reputation with; it was chamber-music chess, subtle and intricate.