The True Story Behind Chess Prodigy And Style Icon Beth Harmon From ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ (2024)

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The True Story Behind Chess Prodigy And Style Icon Beth Harmon From ‘The Queen’s Gambit’? ›

The character of Beth Harmon and her story is fictional. It came from the mind of writer Walter Tevis (1928 – 1984) way back in 1983 when the novel 'The Queen's Gambit' was first published. At the time of release, there was fervent speculation on the inspiration for Beth Harmon.

While the Beth Harmon character herself is fictionalized, many of the show's narrative beats were inspired by real-life events.

The best stories are those that have a little bit of truth. Although The Queen's Gambit is, strictly speaking, a work of fiction, its writer has been honest about the real-life influences that have shaped Beth Harmon's character, from chess greats like Bobby Fischer to his own childhood traumas.

Elizabeth "Beth" Harmon is a fictional American character and the main protagonist in the Walter Tevis novel The Queen's Gambit and the Netflix drama miniseries of the same name, in which she is portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy. Taylor-Joy's performance as Beth was critically acclaimed.

Beth Harmon is a fictional character.

The Hungarian chess champion Judit Polgár could have done the trick, but she didn't become a Grandmaster until 1991. (Her sister, the Susan Polgar, received the title the same year.)

Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), whilst not declared autistic, was heavily coded as such. And rather than playing into stereotypes (one can just imagine how a lazy interpretation of an autistic chess prodigy would come across), Taylor-Joy gives the role complex and dynamic layers.

In the series, she scoops the pieces up and then softly flips them over. The games portrayed in the series are not just realistic, they are real, based on actual competitions.

“Netflix brazenly and deliberately lied about Gaprindashvili's achievements for the cheap and cynical purpose of 'heightening the drama' by making it appear that its fictional hero had managed to do what no other woman, including Gaprindashvili, had done,” stated the complaint.

Actually, Harmon does not exist. She is the fictional star of The Queen's Gambit, the hit Netflix series based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis that has chess aficionados recalling, in Chess.com's words, “The real-life Beth Harmon‎.” Her name was Vera Menchik. She was born in the winter of 1906, in Moscow.

Though the series calls the drug “xanzolam,” the green pills are likely based on chlordiazepoxide(“Librium”), which was patented in 1958. Librium was one of the first benzodiazepines, a class of drugs which are used to treat anxiety alongside other conditions.

What happened to the real Beth? ›

In "Rickmurai Jack", Rick's original Beth, Beth C-137, is revealed to have been killed as a child along with her mother Diane, with Rick having spent the following decades scouring the multiverse for their killer, eventually electing to move in with the adult version of Beth and her family from his target's native ...

Alice Harmon is the biological mother to Beth Harmon and the divorced wife of Paul. She lived with her daughter in a trailer in Wakefield, Kentucky, until her vehicular suicide on July 24, 1957, leaving Beth orphaned. Alice is portrayed by Chloe Pirrie.

Beth's addiction is well documented as we see her begin using tranquilizers at a young age in the first episode. She attributes her exceptional chess-playing abilities to the pills, admitting in later episodes that she thinks the cloudy feeling she experiences when under the influence is the reason why she wins.

At the end of the book, Beth learns that Mr. Shaibel died of a heart attack and attends his funeral with Jolene. Afterward, she takes a trip back to Methuen and discovers that Mr. Shaibel closely followed her career for years, putting up pictures and articles about her on the wall in the orphanage basem*nt.

Abandoned by her biological father, Beth went to an orphanage after her mother had died in a car accident. While living there, the orphanage's janitor taught her how to play chess, and she quickly became obsessed with the game and embarked on a trip to take on the World Champion Vasily Borgov.

Jolene is African American and is 12 when the novel begins. She is protective of eight-year-old Beth, helping Beth with her addiction to the tranquilizers at the school and helping her improve in gym so that she's not afraid of sports like volleyball.

The Queen's Gambit is a chess opening when the following moves are played: The idea behind the Queen's Gambit is: White is trying to exchange his wing pawn (the c-pawn) for a centre pawn (Black's d-pawn). If this is done, then White proceeds to dominate the centre with his King pawn.

Abandoned by her biological father, Beth went to an orphanage after her mother had died in a car accident. While living there, the orphanage's janitor taught her how to play chess, and she quickly became obsessed with the game and embarked on a trip to take on the World Champion Vasily Borgov.

Beth (age 10) - 1600 playing strength: Beth is a strong club player now, capable of taking on a room full of high school players in a simultaneous exhibition. Can you survive against this chess prodigy?

Judit Polgar is a Hungarian grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time.