Written by contributor Elena Horne
From Scott Frank, writer and director of Godless, The Queen’s Gambit is a coming of age story about a young female chess prodigy in the 1960s. Orphaned and abandoned in a Kentucky orphanage, Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy, 2020’s Emma) discovers she is a genius at chess and enters the male-dominated world of competitive chess while battling her own inner demons and addictions.
This Netflix limited series is so bingeable you might never see the credits note “based upon the novel by Walter Tevis” as you hastily click “next episode.” Whether you came to The Queen’s Gambit by the series or the book first, the happy news for fans of either is that book and series are almost exactly the same. Frank adapts Tevis’s 1983 novel close to the original material, down to the Heinz Ketchup label on Harry Beltick’s box of chess books. Not to mention the verbatim dialogue from book to series in several scenes and the inclusion of all major plot points. But any translation from book to screen has its variations. These are some of best ones from book to series in The Queen’s Gambit!
Warning: Major spoilers for The Queen’s Gambit (book and series) ahead!
What’s in the Book That You Might Miss in the Series:
Beth’s Mother and Her Death Are Rarely Mentioned
Walter Tevis opens his novel with a superb line that reflects Beth’s formulaic voice: “Beth learned of her mother’s death from a woman with a clipboard.” In the book, Beth is not in the car for her mother’s fatal car accident. There are very few flashbacks, and Beth’s mother doesn’t go crazy nor does she crash the car on purpose. Beth’s backstory is simple: her father was an alcoholic and her mother died in a car accident. The question of whether Beth will go crazy like her mother is never discussed, as in the book, Beth’s mother was (as far as the audience knows) a mentally healthy woman who got in a terrible accident.
More Move-by-Move Chess Games
For long-time chess fans or those with a new interest in the game since watching the series, the book is chock-full of move-by-move rundowns of Beth’s chess games. This can be dry if you don’t understand the game, but even with a basic understanding of chess, these game rundowns can teach you more about the game and the sheer genius in Beth’s plays both in the book and the series.
When Beth Wins the Kentucky State Championship, She is More Obviously Younger
When Book Beth is adopted by the Wheatleys and leaves the orphanage, she is twelve, almost thirteen and attends Fairfield Junior High. She enters her first tournament and beats Harry Beltick for the state championship at age thirteen while in seventh grade. The series leaves her age ambiguous. Though Series Beth tells the Wheatleys she is thirteen after a pointed look from the orphanage director, Fairfield is a high school, and her age is never clarified. Still, it’s hard to believe that twenty-four-year-old Anya Taylor-Joy could be thirteen no matter what wig they give her.
Beth Isn’t Hungover in Paris
The series opens with a flash forward where a hungover Beth runs in late to a match against the World Champion, Borgov. As the series catches up, the audience learns Beth is late to the most important game of her career thus far after a wild night hook up with the French model, Cleo. This plot twist is a series invention. In the book, Beth arrives at this game on time, well rested, and sober. She loses to Borgov despite playing perfectly. While the lack of Cleo excludes a fascinating character from the book, the fact that Beth loses this game through no fault of her own makes a better story. Book Beth does lose a game due to her drinking, but this loss is to an inferior player in Kentucky after the Paris loss, making her hit to rock bottom in the book much more desolate.
When Beth Hits Rock Bottom, She Asks Jolene for Help
After losing in Paris, losing in Kentucky, and spending her days drinking alone, Beth receives help from her old friend from the orphanage, Jolene. While in the series Jolene shows up unexpectedly at Beth’s door, in the book Beth tracks her down and asks for help. Through Jolene’s encouragement and forced exercise, Beth comes back from the brink slowly. Told mainly through summary, the book shows Beth’s daily struggle of working her way through her addictions.
What’s in the Series That You Might Miss in the Book:
The Friendship Between Jolene and Beth
Jolene (played by Moses Ingram), Beth’s friend who is constantly looking out for her at the orphanage and comes to her rescue in the final episode is perhaps one of the best characters in The Queen’s Gambit. Her speech about her and Beth not being orphans anymore but each other’s family in the final episode is filled with the warmth and dark humour that make Jolene so memorable. This speech and this version of Jolene won’t be found in the book, however. Tevis’s version of Jolene does help Beth stop drinking, but it’s hard to forget the scene where Jolene molests an eight-year-old Beth. This scene is, disappointingly, never addressed again in the book and is, thankfully, left out of the series.
Harry Beltick Plays a Bigger Role
If you loved Beth’s first serious chess opponent turned first love interest turned concerned friend in the series, prepare to be disappointed in the book. Played by a grown-up Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter movies (Harry Melling), Harry is Beth’s first chess coach. Though their sexual relationship is brief and Harry’s feelings for Beth remain unrequited, Harry remains in her life and expresses concern for Beth’s struggles with alcohol and narcotics. When a team of Beth’s chess buddies gather to strategise her final game against Borgov in Moscow, Harry is among them. This is a significantly larger and more likeable role than Harry in the book, who disappears from Beth’s life after their affair ends.
There is a Resolution to the Townes Subplot
Book fans might get to the last page and wonder what happened to Townes (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd). This handsome chess player and Beth’s first crush disappears from the book after they cross paths in Las Vegas. The series, on the other hand, brings him back for the final episode. Though a rift formed between Townes and Beth in Las Vegas, he comes to support her in Moscow. The two even have a heart-to-heart before he helps her prepare for her final game.
The Banter with Benny Watts
The cocky US chess champion, Benny Watts, is much the same from book to series. Played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Maze Runner), Beth’s final love interest is a delight to watch in part for the banter between the pair of them. Their trash talk surrounding chess is laugh out loud funny and yet another brilliant series invention. It’s hard to read the scene where Beth bets Benny thirty dollars on a game of speed chess and he tells her “it’s your money” without wanting to add the series’ zinger: “it will be.”
The Chess Game on the Ceiling in Beth’s Final Game
Though Queen’s Gambit is a story about chess, it’s also about Beth’s inner demons and overcoming addiction. From the time she is eight, Beth depends on tranquillisers to visualise her chess moves on the ceiling, which the series shows with stunning, sometimes sensual visuals. One of the most thrilling series moments is, when playing her final game against Borgov and completely clean, Beth looks up and sees the chess board playing out different moves on the ceiling. This awe-inspiring moment shows a Beth who is a chess genius without her demons, and though there is repeated mention of Beth visualising games in this manner in the book, the sheer wonder of this moment is its most inspiring on screen.
This true-to-the book series ends in the same place as its source material: Beth, fresh off her victory against Borgov and free of her inner demons, walks into a park in Moscow to play chess. The series dresses her to look like the white queen in this final shot, one of the many stunning visuals that make this transformation from book to series so memorable. Scott Frank transforms Walter Tevis’s novel from an inspiring book into an inspiring series, adding stunning cinematography and costumes that will make you want to hit your closest vintage store. Though book and series vary in the details, the heart of the story remains the same: a girl in a male-dominated field capturing trophies and slaying her inner demons on her own.
