The Queen's Gambit

Beth Harmon is the protagonist of The Queen’s Gambit, and the narrative follows her from childhood until her late teens. Beth is orphaned at the age of eight when her mother dies in a car accident. Feeling anxious and alone at an orphanage, she discovers the game of chess through the janitor, Mr. Shaibel. She has an enormous natural talent for the game, and she is soon routinely beating Mr. Shaibel and everyone else she plays against. When she is eventually adopted and begins playing in tournaments, she develops a need to destroy her opponents, often looking across the board at them, hatred in her eyes: “She looked back across the room toward him several times and saw him hunched over the board, his little fists jammed into his pale cheeks...She hated him—hated his seriousness and hated his youth. She wanted to crush him” (125). Beth feels this way toward a Russian boy who frustrates her during a game with solid strategy until she beats him. She feels an innate and unquenchable need to win and annihilate those who play against her. Because she is very young, and because she is a woman in a male-dominated and sexist environment, she is often underestimated, and she enjoys punishing those who dismiss her.