The Queen’s Gambit: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

Benny drops Beth off at Kennedy Airport, wishing her luck. She thanks him for the help, and though she wants to kiss him goodbye, she only grabs her suitcase and walks to the terminal. When she arrives at the building where the tournament is being held, she sees Borgov there, talking to reporters. She steels herself, knowing that she can beat him.

It is the smallest tournament that she has participated in: six players and five rounds, one round a day for five days. The others are strong, but she doesn’t think anyone else can beat her. Beth has never felt more prepared. She begins by playing the black pieces against a Dutch player, gaining equality by the ninth move. By the sixteenth move she threatens him all over the board, until he is forced to yield.

Beth spends the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine, walking the Paris streets. She realizes that she had been so wrapped up in studying that she didn’t fully appreciate that she was going to Paris. She dreams about having an apartment there—by the time she is in her 20s she could be World Champion and live anywhere. She realizes that her possibilities are endless.

Beth returns for a reception at the tournament at 4:30 p.m. When she sees the pastries wheeled in, she misses Mrs. Wheatley, who would have liked them. But when she notices Borgov there, her stomach turns to ice. After the reception, she walks back to her hotel and plays through a dozen of Borgov’s games, goes to bed at 11 p.m., and sleeps beautifully. She refuses to be humiliated by him, and she has an advantage: he would not be as prepared for her as she was for him. Beth beats a Frenchman, an Englishman, and another Dutchman in subsequent days; the next day, she will play Borgov.

When Beth sits down across from Borgov, he shakes her hand but does not smile. She’s playing white, and despite Benny’s advice, she plays the Sicilian, having played through so many of Borgov’s games that she thinks she knows what he’ll do. By the fifteenth move, she sees combinations opening up. Her possibilities for attack increase, and even though he sidesteps them, she feels that she has never played better. His pieces are tied down, while hers are free.

Beth looks around; the other games are finished. They have been playing for three hours. Beth starts to apply more pressure, but Borgov makes a simple move that starts to unravel her plans. She backs off, but she realizes that she is now on a path that will cost her in some way, whatever she tries. She searches, finding excellent moves, but they are not enough. He is simply outplaying her. On the 38th move, she sees that eventually he will mate her or take her queen or gain a second queen. She feels sick and powerless. She does not turn over her king; she simply stands and says that she resigns, feeling physically ill.

Beth cannot escape the memory of the game as she returns to New York, and she takes pills to cope. She doesn’t want to see Benny; she thinks that she’ll stay a week in Kentucky to lick her wounds and then go back to studying in New York. Thinking of how much she studied and still lost, she feels sick all over again. But she knows she has to get ready for Moscow. When she tells Benny about her plan, he implores her not to quit, and she says she isn’t going to.

At Lexington, Beth has received letters from Michael Chennault, the lawyer who arranged for the deed to the house. She calls him, and he tells her that Mr. Wheatley has changed his mind about giving her the house and that he wants to sell it. She sets up a meeting between them and Mr. Wheatley, who’s in town, so that she can talk to him.

Mr. Wheatley and Chennault arrive in the house, and Chennault speaks for Mr. Wheatley, who can’t even seem to look at Beth. Chennault explains that Mr. Wheatley says Beth misconstrued his previous comments, and that she could only stay in the house until she got settled. She reminds him that she’s his daughter, but he says that Mrs. Wheatley was the one who wanted to adopt and that she’s not entitled to everything he owns. In his book, she is not his daughter. Beth offers to buy the house for $7,000, even though she knows it’s worth less than five—but, she says, she’s subtracting what she paid to bury Mrs. Wheatley. Mr. Wheatley sighs and agrees.

After buying the house, Beth only has $2,000 left in the bank. She doesn’t like having so little money saved, but she can earn more at tournaments. The house feels different now that it’s hers—she could get some new pieces and brighten up the house. But the next day, she grows angry again at having to pay Mr. Wheatley so much for it.

Beth starts to study using pamphlets from Benny, but she doesn’t use the same rigor as when she studied with him—she doesn’t stop to think through every move. Gradually she grows bored: she does not want to study chess, even though she knows this is the only way to beat Borgov in Moscow. She starts to think of ways she can fix up the house, but then she gets overwhelmed with everything she has to do.

Beth goes to the bookstore to buy more chess books, but she realizes angrily that she could stop wallowing and go back to New York to study with Benny. Yet immediately, she wonders what Benny has to teach her. She is the best player in the United States—she will have to teach herself. For lunch, she goes to a restaurant in town, and when a waiter offers her a cocktail, she asks for a Gibson and ends up drinking four; she never gets around to ordering a main course. She takes a taxi home and gets out all the alcohol in the house, making more cocktails for herself.

In the subsequent days, Beth gets drunk and usually passes out by noon. Sometimes she drinks just to get rid of the pain in her stomach. On Sunday she spills wine on her kitchen chessboard, and on Monday she sends some of the pieces falling to the floor. She drinks through the week until she realizes she has to get more alcohol and food. She eats lunch out of a can and washes the food down with burgundy. Sometimes the phone rings, but she rarely answers, and when she does, it is often people asking her for publicity engagements, which she refuses. 

In Beth’s third week of drinking, she goes through the pile of magazines in the house and finds a story about her victory at the U.S. Championship over Benny. She gets annoyed when she sees that the story called her the most talented woman since Vera Menchik, because Beth knows she’s better than any male player. Beth closes the magazine and eats canned spaghetti with wine.

A week later, Beth is too sick to get out of bed. She’s too weak even to take her clothes off. She grows frightened, alone and afraid of dying—afraid of slipping in the shower and breaking her hip. After a bath, she feels steadier and eats two eggs. She feels isolated and incapable of calling other people. She assures herself that she’ll be all right and that she can taper off drinking.

The next morning, a man calls to remind Beth about the Kentucky State Championship the next day, which she has completely forgotten. Her head is throbbing, and she does not want to play chess. She reaches for more alcohol, but realizing she has to clear her head, she gets orange juice instead. She feels disgusting and she knows that she doesn’t have to play to defend her championship—no one important will be there. She tries to go through the Levenfish Variation, but it’s hard for her to picture the board, and her head is aching. Still, she gets the first 18 moves right and she decides to play.

At the tournament the next morning, Beth feels queasy, though she didn’t drink anything the previous day. At 18 years old, she feels 40. Her first opponent is a man with a rating in the 1800s. They go through the book moves until Beth grows tired, trying to go for his throat to get it over with. She sacrifices a pawn, but she realizes quickly that this was a hasty move. She makes a series of mistakes and does not like the way the match is going. Her head pounds, and she gets some aspirin from the board director.

Returning to the board, Beth is furious. She can’t find a combination to give her back an advantage. She feels terrified, realizing that she had damaged her mind—possibly damaged her talent. On the 23rd move, Beth realizes she is playing out a lost game. She is humiliated. She lifts her king from the board before he can win and leaves the room without looking at him, telling the director that she’s not feeling well and that she’s dropping out.

Going home, Beth realizes that she has to get herself together. Her humiliation is overwhelming. She is shocked at the idea that she might have wasted her own talent and wishes that she had someone to call. At home, she pours herself a glass of wine despite a voice in her head telling her not to. She continues to drink, telling herself she could live without chess. The next day she continues to pour herself drinks mechanically, and she keeps on that way for days. She realizes one morning that she has to get a foothold—she has to get help, and she realizes who to call.