The Queen’s Gambit Study Guide

Walter Tevis grew up in San Francisco as the younger of two children. Growing up, Tevis was a class-C chess player who learned how to play at age 7. At 10 years old, Tevis developed a heart condition, so his parents placed him in the Stanford Children’s Convalescent home, and he was given heavy barbiturates for a year. While at the home, Tevis’s family moved to Kentucky, and he rejoined them at the end of the year at age 11. Near the end of World War II, 17-year-old Tevis served in the war as a Navy carpenter’s mate. After his discharge, he graduated high school in 1945 and entered the University of Kentucky, earning a B.A. and then an M.A. in English literature. He received an M.F.A. in creative writing in 1960 from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. After graduation, Tevis wrote for the Kentucky Highway Department and taught classes in small-town high schools and colleges in Kentucky while publishing books and short stories, including The Hustler (1959), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1963), and Mockingbird (1980). Tevis married Jamie Griggs in 1957; they remained together for 20 years and had two children before divorcing. Tevis was a frequent smoker, gambler, and alcoholic throughout his life, which became part of the inspiration for The Queen’s Gambit. Tevis spent his final years in New York City as a full-time writer and married Eleanora Walker in 1983. Tevis died of lung cancer in 1984.

The Queen’s Gambit is set against the political and social backdrop of the 1960s in the United States. One of the biggest political dynamics at play was the Cold War—the ongoing conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States, particularly with regards to the conflict between capitalism and communism. This is seen clearly in The Queen’s Gambit, as Beth’s visit to the Soviet Union is tightly monitored and the Christian Crusade offers to fund her trip in order to spread the Christian message in opposition with communism (which they associate with atheism). Other social trends in the United States at the time included suburbanization, which was closely tied to the ideal of the American dream. In the 1950s, the term “nuclear family” emerged to describe the stability of family life at home, often with women serving in traditional roles as homemakers with men working. It is in this context that Beth faces so much opposition, as women were meant to strive for marriage and children rather than ambitious and intellectual goals like competing in chess tournaments. This began to change in the 1960s, however, particularly with the increasing availability of birth control, which gave women greater control over when and if they would have children. In Betty Friedan’s 1963 groundbreaking book, The Feminine Mystique, she insists that women should break out of the household trap. This is what Beth tries to do, though it is clear that many men in the book maintain more traditional and stereotypical views of the roles that women should play, and Beth faces a great deal of sexism in the opponents and tournaments she encounters. Lastly, Beth could be inspired by several figures from the real-life chess world, including Vera Menchik, who rose to fame in the 1920s and 30s and became the first Women’s World Chess Champion. She was also the first woman to play in top-level men’s tournaments and is mentioned in the book. Another possible inspiration includes Bobby Fischer, a grandmaster who was a chess prodigy at age 13 and who beat then World Champion Boris Spassky, a Russian player, in the World Chess Championship 1972. The match was known as the “Match of the Century” and bears similarities with Beth’s match against Borgov.

Walter Tevis has written several other books on genius in gamesmanship and the struggles that come with that kind of talent, including The Hustler and its sequel, The Color of Money, both of which examine pool. Other examples of accounts of young prodigies include Frank Conroy’s Body and Soul, Pascal Mercier’s Lea, Stuart Rosjstaczer’s The Mathematician’s Shiva, Nikita Lalwani’s Gifted, Helen DeWitt’s The Last Samurai, and Myla Goldberg’s Bee Season. Garret Weyr’s The Kings Are Already Here has particularly salient parallels with The Queen’s Gambit, as the two protagonists in Weyr’s novel are Russian and excel in chess and ballet. Nonfiction books examining children who excel despite difficult upbringings include The Man Who Knew Infinity and Spare Parts. Beth’s grappling with addiction in The Queen’s Gambit also bears similarities with several contemporary nonfiction accounts of teenagers dealing with addiction, including Lizzy Mason’s The Art of Losing, Nic Sheff’s Tweak and We All Fall Down.