The Queen's Gambit
Ratings126
Average rating4.1
[Spoiler alert for book and series] Read this along with watching part of the Netflix series. It was interesting to see what was changed and not changed in the film. On the one hand, many parts were extremely faithful to the book, with word for word dialogue. On the other, there were many small and large changes that significantly altered the emotional trajectory. In the book, Beth is not in the car when her mother crashes it and dies (on purpose, the movie suggests), and there is much less backstory of her traumatic childhood. Beth grudgingly agrees to her adoptive mother taking a 10% commission on her chess earnings, whereas in the film she raises it to 15% with a warm smile. To the film was added a suggestion that Beth's genius may be close to madness. Subtracted was an unnecessary sexual overture by a character who makes more sense without it. And so on.
Overall, I preferred this approach. It expands the human side of the story, while de-emphasizing the chess moves that take up a lot of space in the book and are pure gobbledegook to those of us who do not play chess. Other readers seem to feel differently, but for me there is simply not a ton of human interest in whether somebody is going to come up with the right chess move. There is nothing to relate to for normal non-chess-playing humans.
This makes the final face-off with Borkov anticlimactic, for me. I'm not interested in who moves what piece where. The real “endgame” took place when Beth put away her wine bottles and reconnected with Jolene, facing her past and reconceiving her priorities. The mental gymnastics of chess are astounding, amazing, but human beings can't live without human, emotional connection. And it was the last-minute call from Benny that gave Beth a necessary dose of that.
After Borkov's surprising hug at the end, it would have been nice to see some more interaction between them, or between her and the Russians. That would have been interesting to me. I've not finished the series yet, so I wonder if they picked up on this.
The series made more of Beth as an addict than the book. In the book, she goes through spells of using tranquilizers and/or alcohol, but she seems relatively able to free herself from them with some mental effort. I don't think it's so easy in the real world of substance dependency, especially for a person with so much trauma in her life. In general, the book left me feeling rather flat and disappointed, with Beth as a more robot-like chess whiz and less of a human being.
I wanted to finish this novel. The narrator, Amy Landon, has a soothing voice, and understood Beth's emotional remove from others and what that might sound like. The author, Walter Tevis, has given us other important American stories turned into landmark films such as The Hustler, The Color of Money, and The Man Who Fell to Earth.
But.
I truly believe you need to understand chess to follow this novel's progression. Many of Beth's plays, and tournaments' rules and activities, are given without any explanation, which is frustrating. Plus, there is so much alcohol abuse, without it pressing forward the story. Both Beth and her mother drink beer like mother, often in physically impossible quantities and in a method of communication with each other and with other people. I am not sensitive to alcohol abuse or alcoholism per se, but even I became very uncomfortable with the frequency of it. I became so hyperaware of it that it took me out of the book.
a page-turner dù 90% mỗi lần tới khúc quánh cờ và liểng xiểng các thuật ngữ cờ vua tôi lại no thoughts head empty, nhưng vẫn cảm thấy rất kích thích và hồi hộp (không khác gì xem idol của tôi quánh tennis)
văn phong giản dị, không xoắn vặn, cũng không đào sâu tâm lý hay dòng ý thức lổn nhổn các thứ các thứ, nhưng vẫn khiến tôi để tâm và quan tâm nhiều tới các nhân vật - có lẽ là cũng giống như cờ vua chăng? chính xác, vừa đủ và cảm động hơn bề mặt nó thể hiện nhưng tuyệt đối sẽ không bao giờ sa chân xuống hốủy mị (liên thiên vậy chứ tôi cũng không biết gì về cờ vua đâu)
đặc biệt, tôi rất thích nhân vật chính Beth, lâu rồi tôi mới thích một nhân vật chính đến thế(rất mong chờ màn thể hiện của Anya Taylor Joy cho series chuyển thể cùng tên của Netflix)
vậy là đủ cho một cuốn sách kéo tôi ra khỏi cái reading slump đã lầy lội từ hè
Yessss, really enjoyed reading this!
I was OBSESSED with the tv-show, like a lot of people were xD. So I decided to read the book and I am glad I did! :)
Before anything else, I have to point out that I have not seen the show and I honestly am not very interested in it. I prefer this cover over the old ones, though, so I picked this one.
My grandfather used to play chess. Not professionally, just local little tournaments. I never learnt. He could also do things like count cards, so it's safe to assume he was the smart one in this family. He also didn't care about vanity and was extremely... clean, I suppose. Never drank, never even thought of using drugs, he just lived simply and was extremely introverted.
Our main character, Beth is also introverted, though she doesn't skip on a good drink or pills to help her nerves. Damn, girl. She is also a chess prodigy and an orphan. Once she gets adopted in her early teens, she starts her professional chess career that leads her to international fame and even playing against the Russians.
So what was the thing about this book? Beth is extremely successful at chess, but a failure at adjusting to normal life. She doesn't care about anything else, has no other interests. She doesn't care about people who can't challenge her at it and loses interest in people once she is better than them. This includes her lovers; the moment they aren't just at least her equals at chess (either because she is better or they care about other things), she gets disappointed and leaves.
Now some of you will say that's the point. It still made me bored with her. I already knew the end of every interaction and relationship right at the beginning. There was no excitement about seeing her meet a new person, because you knew how it was going to end.
Her only real skill doesn't make that easier. You just know she is going to win. Some few times she gets a bit of hardship, but never more than a few pages and it's all half-hearted. So you know she will be better than anyone. We are told she studies games and replays them and such, but it never feels like she actually struggles. Oh, she does get annoyed when someone twice her age is better than her for a brief time before she beats them, but that's all.
I never felt any real pressure.
The prose played into that. I am not a professor of literature. I don't have a degree, I just read a lot. So bear with me when I have no idea what this style of writing is called. Everything is described with random details, but with some sort of emotional detachment and making everything feel like the bored analysis of the surroundings by a person who notices the weird and unnecessary details. Do I care Beth ate boiled eggs with salt? Do I care about the colour of hand soap? It just makes the book have even less excitement.
Now I didn't expect traditionally defined action. This isn't a book about war, but chess. But still, it made Beth sound so boring.
The other people around her are all defined by how much use they were to her. Her adoptive mother, her fellow competitor Benny Watts, friend Jolene. They are all nothing more than stepping stones so Beth can play more and better chess.
I liked certain things, though. When I first heard this is about a female chess player, I assumed it was going to be yet another tired story about “but like, everyone was so mean to her, because woman and like, life is horrible as a woman” while also telling you women are the greatest thing. On that note, I love the contradiction of those stories; being a woman is the greatest thing, but also let us tell you how being a woman is worse than anything ever and is pure torture.
Here it was handled well. Woman players are rare. But Beth did it and at that point she stopped caring what people said. As long as she wasn't outright banned (which she wasn't) she just did her thing and let that speak for her. And surprise surprise, people were fine after all.
I still can't say it is worth a read other than if you really really want to and have plenty of time. I never questioned Beth being the best. I never thought it could end badly for her.
Hell, even her substance abuse was treated weightlessly; sure, sometimes she got a bit sick, but she bounced right back with no issue and there were no real repercussions. Everything she did just happened without influencing anything else.
It's short, though. So there is that. Short read, which can come in handy by the end of the year, when you are having trouble finishing your challenge, if you care about such things.
Like many people, I watched the Netflix series a few years ago. I found the series good, and now that I came across the book, I definitely wanted to read it.
I certainly don't regret it. Tevis's writing style is somewhat distant; he describes things in a fairly straightforward manner. The dialogues are quite sharp, and what stands out is his knowledge of chess. His expertise is good enough to make it seem realistic.
The story itself is, of course, quite standard and predictable. Even without the Netflix series as a spoiler, the story has no real surprises. An outcast in an orphanage, a girl, turns out to be a prodigy and becomes the world's best chess player.
It's no wonder that the book has been adapted for Netflix because it reads like a movie script.
A very entertaining book, but in this case, the series is better. The characters and the zeitgeist come more to life in the series. Refreshing, for a change.
Dlaczego nikt nigdy wcześniej nie kazał mi czytać Waltera Tevisa?! Jest całkowicie fantastycznym pisarzem!
Beth Harmon, to osierocona cudowna szachistka, która wspina się po szczeblach kariery, by zostać Zawodnikiem nr 1 w USA, a nawet na świecie.
Historia przedstawia psychologiczne, moralne i społeczne kształtowanie się osobowości głównej bohaterki, ale także geniusz i uzależnienie.
W sierocińcu Beth uzależnia się od środków uspokajających, a później odkrywa alkohol, stosując zamiennie, aby przejść przez coraz trudniejsze turnieje. Ukazuje to fascynującą naturę postaci Beth: rzadki, niezrozumiały talent w połączeniu z bardzo bliską ludzką słabością.
Grałam w szachy, ale w żadnym wypadku nie jestem szachistką – nawet nie nazwałabym siebie amatorem, a czytanie książki wypełnionej meczami szachowymi niesamowicie mnie pochłonęło. Mecze są naszpikowane napięciem i ekscytacją, nawet bez zrozumienia ruchów. Szachy są opisane w przystępny i interesujący sposób, a Tevis był naprawdę niezwykle utalentowanym pisarzem.
Odniosłam wrażenie, że relacje Beth były niezręczne, ale na swój sposób wzruszające. Od nauczyciela gry w szachy, dozorcy sierocińca, pana Shaibela, przez jej wesołą, ale delikatną przybraną mamę, panią Wheatley, po pierwszych chłopaków i jej najlepszą przyjaciółkę Jolene – wszyscy byli przekonujący, choć ostatecznie widzimy Beth taką, jaką zawsze się czuła: odizolowaną i samą.
Proza Tevisa jest hipnotyzująca, aż strony same przelatywały. To taka gładka i bez wysiłku porywająca lektura. Naprawdę nie ma ani jednej rzeczy, którą mogłabym w najmniejszym stopniu skrytykować. Uwielbiam Gambit Królowej i oczywiście polecam go wszystkim.
“Przez chwilę żałowała, że nie ma do kogo zadzwonić. [...] Nikogo więcej nie miała. [...] Dopiła i ponownie napełniła kieliszek. Bez szachów można żyć. Większość ludzi żyje.”
The Good: I love how intense it gets when there's a game going on, and I kind of wish the author actually put the complete chess notations for each game so I can also witness how it played while reading. So generally, I love all the parts with a game going on.
The Bad: Flat characters. Absolutely no character development. Characters appear and disappear for zero to minimal reasons. The deaths of characters have no impact.
The Ugly: The blatant racism and child sexual abuse. I could probably let the racism pass as it was set in the '60s and it's probably just trying to be realistic (and maybe just trying to establish the closeness between Jolene and Beth), but I could not let the sexual abuse pass. Chapter 1 was disgusting.
Overall, giving this a 3. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst either.
This book was amazing!! I listened to the audio version, and the performance took some getting used to since the performer sounded sort of robotic. I can't wait to watch the show to see how it compares.
Really enjoyed the Netflix series so bought this on a whim, and very much enjoyed the story all over again. There are only a few changes to the plot that I could tell, but the main thrust of Elizabeth Harmon's rise through the patriarchal world of chess is still a very thrilling journey to witness.
I was mainly surprised after I finished the book to realise that Walter Tevis also wrote The Hustler and Color of Money - as well as sci-fi classics such as The Man Who Fell To Earth. Will definitely be reading more of his stuff this year.
Divertido, com um xadrez mais ou menos bom. Pra quem gosta do esporte tem bons momentos. Pra quem gosta de literatura, pode passar.
I read this after watching the Netflix special. The book is so much like the special, and it's definitely become a fast favourite of mine. I can see myself reading this book over and over and over. It's really well written, and the Netflix series is also incredibly close to the book (with a bit of added backstory).
Precise rating: 4.5 ⭐
Brilliant! From the first to the last page. I know only the basic rules of chess, but Tevis knew how to make words fly off the page and visualise in your head. I'm really happy that I read this one. ♟️
How does this story not have an epilogue? The narration suffered frequently but the tale is engaging. I really enjoyed the parts of the story the author chose to let us puzzle out versus the explicitly detailed elements. I felt respected as a reader but guided in my understanding of the complexities of chess. The brilliance of this story is the parallels between Beth's character and how she plays chess.
I absorbed this book pretty much in one sitting. It combines my love of chess and chess stories with my love of (female) stories of dedication to a skill. And it's masterfully written, and pulls you right along, like a thriller. Like a smart chess game, i felt the novel set plot traps along the way, that felt like the moves a typical story would take, yet like a smart player the novel parried them and confidentely headed towards the endgame.
Adding this to my favorites now.
The Queen's Gambit is interesting; I like Beth's character and the writing style. I like how addiction is accurately portrayed, and am impressed with the authors ability to understand chess well enough to write this. I cannot picture chessboards in my head as clearly as Beth, though, so I mostly skimmed her descriptions of gameplay. Tevis touches on some important topics like feminism, racism, and class, but doesn't expand in any meaningful way...it's just there. The book doesn't have a real climax, everything feels the same the entire way through.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, regardless.
My main complaint, and something I'm glad the Netflix adaptation leaves out (Spoiler:) is the unusual and out of place sexual content in the beginning of the novel. She is a child. He writes of her sexual assault in gross detail, and then it has absolutely no impact on her or the book whatsoever. It ruins the character of Jolene, who she continues to idolize. He implies that Jolene and Fergussen have a relationship, when he is of college age and she is 13, ruining another character. It was just really gross and uncomfortable to read especially from an adult man's writing. Why was it included??
It's refreshing to have an engaging novel whose protagonist uses her brain instead of her FISTS to solve problems. The Queen's Gambit is a great and inspiring read about a prodigy making her way up through the chess world.