The Queen's Gambit : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Compelling Obsession
Review: Tevis can write a story. You're hooked from the start with this one and you'll read it all the way through. Though light on characterization his mastery of plot and pacing drive the story forward relentlessly.

Particularly good are his visualisations of the powers of the elite in the chess world, demonstrating this by having young Beth play games at night on her ceiling by memory and their prodigious memory for the games and positions of chess theory.

The character of Beth is sympathetically self-destructive, the supporting characters aren't really developed. Just as Beth is mono-maniacal about chess, the book is mono-maniacal about Beth. This is her story and her story alone. This is not a weakness, but perhaps there was another way the book could have gone with more of the supporting cast. Beth is likeable, and fallible enough to have the reader emotionally invested in her success.

Highly recommended for anyone, knowing a bit about chess, the tournament scene, and the state of the game in the 60's will add to your appreciation of Tevis' craft but is not necessary to fully enjoy this story.

Rating:
Summary: I don't play chess, but I loved this book.
Review: I picked up a used copy of "The Queen's Gambit" not because I was fascinated by the subject matter, but because Walter Tevis was a writing professor at Ohio University, my alma mater. (I never had him for a class, though I did interview him for a university publication.) I had never read anything by Tevis--not even his bestsellers, "The Hustler" and "The Man Who Fell to Earth"--but "The Queen's Gambit" makes me want to rush out and find every Tevis book I can. In "The Queen's Gambit," Tevis creates a singular, and singularly moving, lead character--Beth Harmon, an orphaned, alcoholic, drug-addicted teenage girl who also happens to be one of the greatest chess prodigies the world has ever seen. Left alone in the world at the age of eight, hooked on tranquilizers by the monsters who run her orphanage, Beth is buffeted on all sides by enemies and fools. She finds her only lasting solace in the black and white figures on the chessboard, living and reliving those strategies as if her life depends on it (which, in the end, it does). Beth is so real, and so heartrending, that she and her story will linger with you long after you've finished the book. The book contains a great deal of chess terminology and strategy--two things of which I am profoundly ignorant and profoundly uninterested. Yet Tevis made me feel the excitement Beth feels in playing the game, and involved me totally in her life-and-death struggle to master it. Even if you don't like chess, you will like "The Queen's Gambit." My guess is that if you love the game, you will adore "The Queen's Gambit."

Rating:
Summary: an absorbing story
Review: I rarely read "popular" fiction, I generally will read the classics or great contemporaries... but I love chess and was enticed by other reviews to read this...

I was totally absorbed into the story of Beth, and her magnificent obsession with chess (and surprisingly drugs).. so much that I hated to reach the last page.. I loved the journey and wished it had a sequel...

so I turned back to page 1 and re-read it a second time.. something I've done with great books.. 100 Years of Solitude, Narcissus and Goldmund, The Illiad, Tolkien's The Ring....

If you're reading this review... read the book, you'll enjoy it and Beth will be a person you think about long after you've finished the book.. she'll become part of you and your life... what more can you ask of a novel?


Rating:
Summary: An great story - not just a chess story
Review: I read Tevis' brilliant "Mockingbird" many years ago, went looking for his other books, and found this one. No one had read it or heard of it, and I always considered it a lost gem, re-reading it every few years. I'm glad it's being reissued. This isn't a book about chess, you don't have to know a thing about the game to enjoy the story. It's about Beth, a young orphan who discovers her chess genius by accident, nurtures it, uses it as a lifeline to pull herself into the real world after her adoption and painful adolescence. Without her, the book would be a magazine article about a chess prodigy. With her, it's a story of a young woman who doesn't really know how to live in the world, but finds a way through the pain of an incomplete childhood. If you enjoyed books like "She's Come Undone" or "The Liar's Club" you will love this one. You want to root for her, no matter what she's doing.

Rating:
Summary: An great story - not just a chess story
Review: I read Tevis' brilliant "Mockingbird" many years ago, went looking for his other books, and found this one. No one had read it or heard of it, and I always considered it a lost gem, re-reading it every few years. I'm glad it's being reissued. This isn't a book about chess, you don't have to know a thing about the game to enjoy the story. It's about Beth, a young orphan who discovers her chess genius by accident, nurtures it, uses it as a lifeline to pull herself into the real world after her adoption and painful adolescence. Without her, the book would be a magazine article about a chess prodigy. With her, it's a story of a young woman who doesn't really know how to live in the world, but finds a way through the pain of an incomplete childhood. If you enjoyed books like "She's Come Undone" or "The Liar's Club" you will love this one. You want to root for her, no matter what she's doing.

Rating:
Summary: Play-by-Play
Review: I read this story in high school & loved it. If you enjoy reading this book, you'll probably like the movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer. No high-level knowledge of chess necessary to appreciate either work.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: It was the spring of 1983. On a long plane trip, I started THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT by Walter Tevis, a just-published novel I'd bought on impulse. And I was gobsmacked. Tevis --- author of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH and THE HUSTLER (and, later, THE COLOR OF MONEY) --- had written a book that, very simply, could not be put down. The woman who would become my first wife tried to talk to me; I shushed her. A meal came; I pushed it aside. All I could do was read, straight to the end --- weeping, cheering, punching the air.

Amazingly, this novel soon went out of print. And stayed out of print for two decades. Now, at last, it's available again.

What's the fuss about? An eight-year-old orphan named Beth Harmon. Who turns out to be the Mozart of chess. Which brings her joy (she wins! people notice her!) and misery (she's alone and unloved and incapable of asking for help). So she gets addicted to pills. She drinks. She loses. And then, as 17-year-old Beth starts pulling herself together, she must face the biggest challenge of all --- a match with the world champion, a Russian of scary brilliance.

You think: This is thrilling? You think: chess? You think: Must be an "arty" novel, full of interior scenes. Wrong. All wrong.

I tell you: THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT is "Rocky" for smart people.

I tell you: You will care about Beth Harmon more than any fictional character you've encountered in years and years.

I tell you: You will grasp the wrench of loneliness --- and the power of love --- as if this book were happening to you.

Do you need to know anything about chess? Nope. Nothing. Tevis was a storyteller whose genius was to tell great stories; there's nothing between you and the people.

My bet: If you read five pages, you won't put it down. You too will weep. And cheer. And at the end, raise your fist like a fool for a little girl who never existed and a game only wimps play.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: This is the book I reach for most often to relieve a sleepless night. I'm probably the world's most careful reader, least hard on my books, with 10 years old paperbacks that look brand new, but this book is falling apart. I finally tracked down a hardbound copy to replace my tattered paperback.

I know enough of chess to follow the action, and in fact it deepened my interest in chess. But the main attraction is the main character, the young orphan girl who discovers chess and that this ancient game and her brain are made for each other. Perhaps partly I could identify with discovering a native talent (no, not chess) not usually associated with girls/women and/or the very young.

But primarily this is a story of the triumph of a unique human spirit housed in the form of an ordinary looking young girl with an unusual number of strikes against her. Fascinating, inspiring, a great read.

Rating:
Summary: 4 Stars from a Dummy who likes Rocky Too?!
Review: This novel is not my usual reading fare. My father read and recommended it so I figured why not (I still had a week before Steven King's next Dark Tower novel came out). The story of chess prodigy Beth Harmon is a fantastic underdog / fish out of water type story, that will keep you riveted. I have little to no experience playing chess, but Tevis writes out the gameplay in a way that is easy to follow. Chess comes off more as a sport in this novel, and Beth Harmon's competitive nature is addictive. You will find yourself rooting for Beth as you would a favorite football team that has the odds stacked against them. There is plenty of suspense involved in the novel as well, as you really get sucked into the story and whether or not this "girl" can compete and win in a "man's" game. The only reason I did not give "The Queen's Gambit" a higher rating, it that I felt it dragged in places concerning Beth's struggle with addiction. And despite what another reviewer says regarding this novel as a "Rocky for smart people", trust me, this novel can be enjoyed by the legions of dumb people like me as well. I had no problem reading this novel, then putting it down in time to watch WWE Wrestling on my movin' picture box.