Book Club Meets and Plays Chess: The Queen’s Gambit Wins Every Time!

We did meet (on Zoom), but we didn’t play chess! The Queen’s Gambit was well-liked, and the Netflix version is as good as the book. I watched the first episode this weekend, and I am convinced! But glad I read the book first!

Ken led us through the questions. Here is some of what was said:

Question: Genius and madness. Both epithets are applied to Beth Harmon. Are they both true?

Answers: Several votes for genius, and several for madness. Beth was a genius at chess, but she suffered from madness: depression and autism. Maybe her unhealthy eating caused some imbalances. Cindy T. said Beth was normal at times and sometimes over the top. She had extremes, a positive one being her obsession with chess. Joyce M. noted that even with Beth’s excessive drinking and addiction to the pills, she was able to fight both dependencies when it was necessary.

Question: What are Beth’s relationships with women in the book?

Answers: Jolene was Beth’s first friend while growing up and her only one. She also became friends with her adoptive mother. Pam said Beth never was comfortable with any of the men in her life, and Jolene might have been a sex interest for her. Cindy said that Jolene refused advances from Beth (I don’t remember that in the book – might it have been when Beth was “under the influence” of a substance?) The man Beth supposedly had a crush on during the Netflix version turned out to be gay. She had a crush on a reporter in the book; was he gay in the book? Cindy T. and I both said, at the same time, that Beth was so involved with chess that she didn’t have room in her life for a sexual relationship.

Question: What do you see in Beth’s future?

Answers: More wins, earning a living with teaching and/or continued playing. I said I was amazed  that Beth was so smart and that real chess players must be similarly smart to keep so many moves in their heads. Dennis said that another ability they use is pattern recognition, such as when playing a simultaneous set of games. The chess expert sees all the patterns and relationships on each board as she encounters it, so she doesn’t have to remember all the boards at once. Ken mentioned that the simultaneous player goes around making a lot of safe moves and waits until an opponent makes a blunder, which the expert can see at once and take advantage of. Pam said Beth saw it all in her head and visualized the moves, rather than seeing it all with her eyes only. Ken noted that on chess.com, you can look at a potential move on the board and then go back to the game without actually committing to the move.

Ken suggested we read the New Yorker magazine article (from the August 2,^, 2021 issue), entitled, “Hou Yifan and the Wait for Chess’s First Woman World Champion,” by Louisa Thomas. Hou has been the only great female chess player for a while. The New Yorker allows nonsubscribers 1 free article per month. Since I looked up the article before the meeting, The New Yorker has limited my viewing more and more, preferring to give me an opportunity to subscribe. Sorry, I can’t even link to the article. Maybe I’ll read it in September, when the New Yorker will give me 1 free article.

Ken also told us that there was a women’s tournament along with a men’s tournament, I think he said in Norway, and that the monetary prizes were equal! He then noted that the male winner addressed the audience, but the female one didn’t. Two steps forward, one step back?