Friday, October 09, 2020

FFB QUEEN'S GAMBIT, Walter Tevis

QUEEN'S GAMBIT by Walter Tevis

I am not sure what drew me to this book. I know nothing about chess and the book was chock full of chess matches. I was unable to follow the moves and,
in fact, had never heard of terms like the "middle game" before. 


 

Beth, an orphan, is taught chess by the janitor at the school/orphanage where she lives. She begs him to learn and at once excels. Once adopted, her adopted mother uses (in a benign way) her ability to support them. Both of them are in flight from any real world. 
We follow Beth from match to match across the years. She picks up some bad habits in terms of substance abuse along the way. An interesting book about a child prodigy and how she makes the jump to an adult champion. Highly recommended especially for those who play the game.
Tevis also wrote THE HUSTLER and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. 


And look, here's the trailer for the Netflix series. https://youtu.be/CDrieqwSdgI

12 comments:

Jeff Meyerson said...

I read his book of short stories several years ago, but don't really remember anything about it. Haven't read this, but since it is coming on Netflix in a couple of weeks, I might.

George said...

I've read several of Walter Tevis's works (and I have QUEEN'S GAMBIT on my READ REAL SOON shelf) so I may have to move it up on the stack after reading your excellent review!

Todd Mason said...

Barry Malzberg has been urging anyone within reading distance to read this for some years now, and I haven't gotten to it despite sharing his enthusiasm for Tevis's other work. Glad you found it worthwhile!

FAR FROM HOME, his only published collection of short stories, is one of the many unfinished reviews that have been hanging fire for some months or years in my TBF virtual pile.

Margot Kinberg said...

Interesting! I don't think there are a lot of books focusing on chess like this, Patti.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Read THE ROYAL GAME by Stefan Zweig (sp?) years ago. It must be a theme in some mystery though.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I see why Barry Malzberg was interested. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3185733-tactics-of-conquest

Todd Mason said...

His love of Tevis is not dimmed by his love of chess, no...

Todd Mason said...

There's a fair amount of sf and fantasy about chess and not a few stories of various sorts about playing out chess games in life...Lewis Carroll having inspired no few. Kurt Vonnegut's non-sf story "All the King's Men" is one of the better suspense stories that comes to mind (and a similar tale re-incorporated into the sfnal is a large part of an episode of THE PRISONER, the Patrick McGoohan surreal sf series).

Steve Oerkfitz said...

This is the only thing by Tevis that I have not read. I need to check this out. His Mockingbird is one of my favorite SF novels.
I just watched the trailer and it looks pretty good.

pattinase (abbott) said...

It does look good. I am looking forward to it.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Thanks for spotlighting this book, Patti. I love chess, a game I have been playing since I was a kid. I will look this up.

TracyK said...

This does sound good and I have read nothing by Tevis.

I have read a few mysteries that spotlight chess in some way or another. And I have never played chess. I remember them because they had a theme of chess but I did not need to know much about it.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, although I don't remember how important it was to the story.
In The Defection of A. J. Lewinter by Robert Littell, the structure of the book follows the stages of a chess game.
In Len Deighton's Funeral in Berlin, there are over 50 chapters and almost all of them start with a brief tidbit about a move or strategy in chess. But I don't think the story used it at all. Not sure.