[BWF] The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis 3 stars (it's actually about a chess player who is a woman, so play on words here.)

[Karin]

I'm calling this contemporary fiction to help fight against the incorrect shelvings of historical fiction--this book was not historical fiction when it was written!

I read this book because of two challenges--it starts with a Q and it's been shelved 5 stars a number of times. I loved the idea of a book about a world champion chess player who is a woman--it hasn't happened yet, but then since the 1880s when this started there have only been about 21 people with that title. That said, the top levels are dominated by men and boys; there are women there, though.

Tevis was a chess player--he was a class C chessplayer which is an average club or tournament player and most people can get there if they work at it (D is the lowest ranking but you have to play enough games to get a ranking to earn that.) However, he had input from three better players and then it was proofread by a National Master (strongest amateur rank and the one just below the lowest professional rank,) so if you are an amateur chess player you won't find errors, or if there are any, they will be few.

He does a great job of describing how some chess prodigies think and analyse--how the ones that make it to world champions start as child prodigies, and I mean true prodigies; this makes sense since things such as math and physics, etc, are young-brain oriented as well (most bit math breaks are found by the time a mathematician is 21 or at least before they are 22; for physics it's usually by their early 30s) and I can see that the spatial skills involved tie into that. I have no idea how long one can keep improving at chess, but I can see that to really be on top it's partly that plus the ability to tune out everything else and just play chess when in a tournament.

BUT the book--I didn't love it. (view spoiler)[I wish it had been written from a better woman's POV and that it didn't have so much dangerous drinking involved, but of course this is one of my pet peeves in fiction. (hide spoiler)] That said, it has a high average rating of 4.19.

[Sue]

I haven't read this one yet, but I did watch the limited series, which I really enjoyed.

[Karin]

Sue wrote: "I haven't read this one yet, but I did watch the limited series, which I really enjoyed."

I hadn't realized it was made into a series, but I shouldn't be surpised given it's high average rating, etc.

[Amy]

I never read it, because I saw the series, and after that I couldn't go back.

[Karin]

Amy wrote: "I never read it, because I saw the series, and after that I couldn't go back."

I understand--I can't see how you'd want to read this if you saw it; I certainly wouldn't. There are chess things in it well beyond me.

[Robin P]

The series got a huge amount of attention in the US and caused a spike in purchases of chess sets. (I haven't watched it myself.)

[Karin]

Robin P wrote: "The series got a huge amount of attention in the US and caused a spike in purchases of chess sets. (I haven't watched it myself.)"

Interesting. I finally looked it up and see that it's on Netflix. We stick with cable with our ISP package. I do have Prime, but rarely watch anything there. I don't want to pay for anything I'll feel I have to use to get my money's worth out of since I don't watch much TV.

[Dosha (Bluestocking7)]

I loved the series. The chess player’s clothes were stunning! It made me want to start dressing retro.

[Karin]

Dosha (Bluestocking7) wrote: "I loved the series. The chess player’s clothes were stunning! It made me want to start dressing retro."

Darn, another good series I'll miss because I don't subscribe. I've thought of doing a short term one a few times, but haven't yet done it. Perhaps sometime when I'm in a reading slump I'll finally get around to it.