The Queen’s Gambit: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Beth boards the plane to Moscow alongside the State Department agent, Mr. Booth. She has disliked him from the moment she met him when he told her that he could show her the ropes in Moscow. He also told her that he played chess at Yale in the 40s. She wishes Benny were there; she hadn’t even been able to get a hold of him before she left. She again thinks that she shouldn’t have given back the money, but she didn’t want to be bullied. Still, she misses Benny, wishing that they could play games and eat and see Moscow and have sex together. Beth and Mr. Booth land in Russia and take a cab to their hotel. Moscow looks like any other city, but it makes Beth tense. She feels totally alone and frightened.

The tournament begins the next morning. A director welcomes them all, and Beth notices three Russian players: Luchenko, Laev, and Shapkin, all of whom are formidable next to American players. She doesn’t want to look at Borgov. There are also several other men from Brazil, Finland, and Belgium, all dressed very dapper. She feels entirely out of place, like a child at an adult event.

After the director finishes his speech, the players all migrate to the vast auditorium. As Beth files out, Luchenko greets her, saying he’s delighted she’s here and that he looks forward to playing her. His warmth is unmistakable, and she thanks him. In the auditorium, there are four large tables with chess boards inlaid on them, with water and glasses. Behind each one stands a male referee with a display board showing the game. Every seat in the auditorium is filled. The director introduces each player, who receives thunderous applause.

Beth’s first opponent is Laev, a youthful man in his 20s. The director punches the clock, and the match begins. Beth is relieved to play, and she feels comfortable in her chair. Beth has studied Laev’s style, but she knows that he probably doesn’t expect much from her. Laev is playing white and still has the advantage as they quickly move into the middle game. Beth isn’t playing attack chess—she’s playing subtle and intricate chess. When she achieves equality, Laev looks at her in a new way, as though realizing that she is better than he thought.

Five moves later, Beth adds to her advantage, pressing Laev and forcing him to defend. Gradually, he begins to yield, until he attacks his rook. She offers her bishop as sacrifice, and when the referee posts the move on a display board, the audience gasps. Beth knows that she has him. He studies the board for 20 minutes and then stands up and they shake hands. The tournament director also shakes Beth’s hand, and she walks off the stage to sudden applause.

Beth eats alone that afternoon in one of the hotel restaurants. She thought about taking a tour of Moscow, but she’s exhausted, so she returns to her hotel room and lies down. She plays over her game with Laev, finding that she made no mistakes and had no weaknesses. Beth plans to go over Duhamel’s games—she is playing him tomorrow. That evening, dinner is infuriating; all the Russians laugh and chat while Beth can’t really make conversation with any of the other players.

The next day, Duhamel makes an error in judgment early in the game, and Beth pounces on it—their game takes barely an hour. As Beth leaves, she notices Borgov get up from his game and study the position left on her board, which satisfies her, as he has largely ignored her until now.

After lunch, Beth takes a walk to a nearby park and finds many men playing chess, with more than 40 boards going. There is very little talk, and she weaves through the games, observing the players, all of whom are very old. Beth stops at one of the boards, where the men are playing the Richter-Rauzer. It’s first-class chess being played by two old men in cheap working clothes. One of the men looks up at her and scowls, and Beth feels self-conscious. Then, he recognizes her, getting up and throwing his arms around her, shouting “Harmon!” to the other men. They all stand up and hold out their hands for her to shake.

Beth’s next two tournament games are rigorous and exhausting, but she is never in any real danger. Now, she is playing Luchenko. He is the oldest player there; he had been World Champion before Beth was born. She has gone through dozens of his games; he is a formidable player, but Beth is ready. On the twelfth move, he begins to attack, and she has to delay her strategy. She brings her knight over to defend before realizing that, in seven moves, he could pick off her rook in exchange for a bishop. She is in shock; she should have seen it coming.

Beth studies the position for a long time, but she cannot get out of the attack. She allows it to happen, and she tenses, now behind in the game. She and Luchenko make a few trades, but if they continue to trade, she will be ground down to no pieces. Every time she tries to find a glimmer of possibility, he defends. Suddenly, she realizes that she has to make three moves in 15 minutes, while he has 40 minutes. She makes a few moves before they adjourn, and she walks wearily off the stage.

That night, Beth studies the position with Luchenko until she becomes dizzy with too much chess and too little food. She decides to take a walk, and as she walks down the hall, she hears several male voices coming out of a suite whose door is opened to let the heat out. She glances in; there are three men there talking over a chess board—Borgov and two other Russians, talking over the position he had adjourned in his match with Duhamel. Beth feels in that moment like a child peering into an adult world. She wishes that she had the help that Borgov did.

When Beth arrives the next day at the tournament, crowds have gathered, waving and shouting at her. She will play Flento in the morning and then finish her game with Luchenko in the afternoon. Flento is the weakest player in the tournament, and she beats him, but it takes four hours and is a lot more grueling than she suspected. She eats a quick lunch and decides to take a nap, but she’s too hyped up to sleep. By the time she returns to the chessboard facing Luchenko, she feels more tired than she has ever felt.

As the match starts back up, Luchenko moves the pawn that Beth expected. She is relieved; now she can focus on the primary strategies she considered. She forgets about how tired she is and goes through three strategies, which will use his currently ineffective rook against him—which she had found after hours of study. She hopes that he doesn’t see what she’s planning, but she knows he had probably analyzed the position as much as she had—and with help.

Beth moves her bishop, hoping that she looks like she is attacking his pawn formation, and to her excitement, Luchenko moves his pawn rather than considering other possibilities. She moves her knight; if he takes it, she can trade the rook for her bishop—but she would also get his knight in return. When she looks up at him hesitantly, his appearance is a surprise to her. His hair is mussed, and he has loosened his tie. He thinks for a half hour and finds nothing, and so he takes the knight. Beth wants to shout with joy. The game will be even now.

From that point on, Beth whittles away at Luchenko’s pawns while attacking his remaining bishop. She gives 20 of her remaining 25 minutes to work out how to mate him and then makes her move, using his time to figure out every variation on each move he might make. When he finally makes his move, she knows she has him. He seems lost in thought, and then he stands up. He says “excellent,” in English, turns over his king, and smiles at her, calling her recovery “amazing.”

Beth is surprised at Luchenko’s lack of rancor, and she tells him how much she admires him. He is astounded that she is 19 and says that he has gone over her games—she may just be the best chess player he has ever played. She stares at him in disbelief. When she leaves, Mr. Booth congratulates her in the lobby. He’s holding a newspaper, and Beth manages to translate the caption on a picture of her: “Surprising strength from the U.S.”

The next day, Beth plays Borgov. She is playing the white pieces, and she knows that she must hang on to that advantage for dear life. She will play the Queen’s Gambit, which she and Benny discussed for hours, months before. When she enters the auditorium, every seat is full, but the crowd falls deadly silent. She realizes, seeing Borgov already seated, that she’s not just terrified of chess; she’s terrified of him, of his lack of weakness.

The match begins, and Beth opens. Everything is silent. Borgov plays the Albin Counter Gambit, which Beth is familiar with. The dance begins, and though Beth still feels like a little girl, her mind is clear. Seven moves in, the game bursts wide open, and Beth plays the best chess she knows, developing her pieces and defending everywhere she can. She sees the whole board in her mind. For hours, she does not look at Borgov or the audience or the referee. Her entire attention is devoted to the game, which is why when Borgov says “adjourn,” she is surprised. They have already played 40 moves.

In the lobby, Mr. Booth has a half dozen reporters waiting for Beth, even though she’s exhausted. She poses for pictures in the lobby and her room. She knows she should be setting up the position for her game and studying it—that Borgov would be in his suite with other players, looking for weaknesses in her position. The reporters ask about Methuen, and Beth—for the first time—tells them honestly that Methuen stopped her from playing chess, that they were cruel on principle. She says that a few were not: Fergussen, and the man who taught her to play, William Shaibel. She says that he was a good player.

After they leave, Beth takes a bath and goes over her position. She doesn’t know if she can beat Borgov, but she studies as much as she can. The next morning, she wakes at dawn—she has only slept two and a half hours. She keeps going through different scenarios in her head. She eats breakfast and drinks tea, but when she sits down behind the board, all she feels is tense—she cannot come up with anything creative, she can only imagine her response to his threats. This is a passive strategy, and she will lose doing it.

Suddenly, the phone rings, for the first time since Beth has been there. When she picks up, a voice tells her what to do if Borgov moves his knight—it’s Benny. Her game was printed in the Times and he and a few others have been working on the game for three hours. Benny runs her through different scenarios, and she is thrilled, grateful for their help. After they’ve finished, Benny gives her a final, “Go beat him.”

When Beth approaches the building, she sees a display board outside with her game position on it for the crowd who can’t get in the building to see. When they see her, they start chanting, “Harmon! Harmon!” Hers is the only game left to finish, and Borgov is already sitting at it when she arrives, at center stage. When the referee makes Borgov’s move, Beth sees it was the move she wanted him to make.

The next five moves follow a line from Benny, but on the sixth, Borgov makes a surprising move. The call from Benny had covered her fear, but now Borgov has started a line that she has no continuation for, moving his rook to the center of the board. She is alone once more. Beth takes in the board, and she closes her eyes, picturing it in her mind instead. She has the clarity that she had as a child, envisioning the board on her ceiling. There is no clear-cut attack, but she knows Borgov’s rook can dominate the board. She can only attack it with her queen, but she doesn’t know where to put it. But then, she starts to see something, and she sees how to use her knight instead and sacrifice her queen.

When Beth moves, and Borgov starts the continuation, he offers her a draw. She is stunned; he never offers draws. Her mind tells her to take it, knowing that Borgov is famous for endgames. But a draw is not a win, and she can see Borgov is tired. She refuses. They continue on, exchanging queens and threatening his rook so that he has to move it. But after that, Beth doesn’t know what to do. For a moment she feels stuck and unsure. She closes her eyes again, holding her mind in silence as she combs over the board.

The more mental energy Beth puts into the game, the more she realizes it is hopeless. She cannot figure out a way to queen her pawn, especially before Borgov does. But she sees with a start that he had used his bishop to take her rook, and now the knight can help queen her pawn. Mate would follow in four moves. She looks at the clock. She has 12 minutes left; she has been thinking about the problem for over an hour. If she makes an error, there will be no time for a new strategy. She moves the pawn. Borgov responds, and it starts to go the way that she wants it to. She moves the pieces with deliberate speed, while Borgov takes more time between moves now.

When Beth moves the pawn to the seventh rank and defends with her knight, there is silence. Borgov smiles grimly and says, “It’s your game,” offering her his king. She takes it in her hand as thunderous applause begins and people start to stand. And then, to her shock, Borgov comes beside her and hugs her warmly to him.

During the party at the embassy, Beth refuses champagne, despite everyone drinking and toasting her. Borgov doesn’t come. She eats and answers reporters’ questions, but she feels weightless, tired, and oddly out of place. She thanks the woman hosting the event, and before she leaves, she says goodbye to Luchenko. He bows and says that all this—the party—is not like chess at all.

As Beth rides back to the embassy with Mr. Booth, she wonders what to do now. She has her trophy and her prize money; maybe she can sleep for a while, eat, and go to bed early. She had beaten the Russian establishment; in two years, she could be playing Borgov for the World Championship. But she doesn’t want to think about that. Before arriving at the hotel, Beth sees the park with the chess boards and asks the driver to stop and let her off at the park. She walks up the steps and sits down across from an old man playing alone. She says in Russian, “Would you like to play chess?”