The Queen’s Gambit: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

One Saturday afternoon, Mr. Fergussen brings Beth to Mrs. Deardorff’s office. She worries that they have found the pills or know that she has been skipping class. But when she arrives, Mr. Ganz is sitting there. Mrs. Deardorff explains that Mr. Ganz knows she is a phenomenal chess player, and that he wants to take her to the high school to play with the chess club, which has a dozen members. Mrs. Deardorff comments that they try to encourage their girls to get out into the world, though Beth can’t recall anyone ever doing so. Beth says that she wants to go, which settles the issue. But after Mr. Ganz leaves, Mrs. Deardorff warns Beth that she can’t play chess in the basement, and that she’ll have Fergussen look into getting a board for her.

In bed, Beth thinks about how she’ll play so many games with the chess club. She tries to picture twelve boards at once, but she can only picture four or five. She plays late into the night, forgetting about the pills. But the next morning, she only gets vitamins—no tranquilizers. Fergussen explains that there’s a new law—no tranquilizers for kids. Beth eyes the big glass jar, which is still a third full of green pills. That night, she can only think about the pills.

The next day, while changing after gym, Jolene asks Beth about playing chess at the high school—she heard about it from Fergussen. Beth ignores the question, asking if Fergussen has been giving Jolene extra pills, but Jolene says no. Jolene notices that it seems like Beth is going through withdrawal. As they finish changing, Beth realizes how beautiful Jolene is in comparison to her—she feels ugly, and she feels on edge, thinking only of the pills.

The car ride to the high school is Beth’s first since coming to Methuen. She thinks about her mother, who died in a car. Her father passed away a year earlier, because of a “carefree life,” her mom said. Shirley, a girl in the chess club, also accompanies them, and she tries to make conversation. Beth thinks about how nervous she is—before she left, Jolene gave her three green pills, but she hadn’t had the chance to take them. Beth asks Mr. Ganz to stop so she can go to the bathroom, and in the gas station she takes all three.

At the high school, kids arrive in the chess classroom—mostly boys, who seem as big as men. Beth realizes that she will have to stand the whole time, walking around to the 12 boards. As the boys quietly jeer at her, she feels “powerless and silly.” But looking at the chess boards, she knows that she is not out of place.

Mr. Ganz instructs his students to take their seats and to be quiet. Beth moves from board to board. She quickly realizes, in surprise, how badly all of them play. She calmly moves from board to board, her mind bright. Other boys come in to watch her play. At the end of an hour and a half, she has beaten them all without a single false or wasted move. There is scattered applause, but she realizes coming out of her feat that she is just “a little girl again, without power.” Mr. Ganz gives her chocolates as a prize and takes her back to Methuen.

At dinner, Jolene tries to ask about Beth’s time at the high school, but she asks if Jolene has any more pills. Jolene simply turns away from her. That next Saturday afternoon, while the movie is on, Beth is exhausted, not having slept much on Thursday or Friday. She asks to go to the bathroom and, knowing that everyone is distracted by the loud movie, Beth examines the padlocked window that says “Pharmacy” and the screws that hold together the hasp where the padlock is connected.

That morning, Beth took a screwdriver from the boys’ woodworking shop after breakfast. When her father was home and sober, he liked to do odd jobs around the house, and she helped him. Standing on a stool and taking out the screwdriver, Beth gets the hasp’s screws free and wriggles through the window, landing on the metal table inside. Climbing down, Beth goes over to the jar and grabs a fistful of pills, shoveling them into her mouth. She then stuffs three handfuls of pills into her pockets and plans to fill four Dixie cups with them that she can store in an empty Kleenex box.

Beth tries to walk out of the pharmacy through the door, but the door will not open from the inside—she needs a key. She can’t go back out the window with the four cups, and Beth starts to grow frantic. She feels trapped, just as trapped as when she was taken from her home and put in this institution. She decides to leave the cups on the metal table, climb out, and then grab them.

As Beth fills the Dixie cups, she realizes that she could just lift the whole jar out—she knows a place to hide it in the bathroom. Beth feels the pills start to take effect, and she climbs back through the window. But when she lands on the other side, her body starts to go limp. She vaguely hears someone calling her name as she picks up the jar. She turns, but the jar slips from her hands and explodes on the ground. Mrs. Deardorff and Mr. Fergussen call out to her, and other teachers and children come out to see what is happening.

Mr. Fergussen rides with Beth to the hospital, where they make her swallow a tube. She then falls asleep, feeling them put a needle in her arm. She isn’t there very long, and Fergussen drives her back the same evening. He tells her that he thought Deardorff would explode before saying that she’s going to have to stop taking the pills entirely.

Back at Methuen, Beth sleeps for twelve hours. The next day she goes to Mrs. Deardorff’s office, but she’s surprisingly calm—while getting dressed, she discovered that, despite her trip to the hospital, she still managed to hide 23 tranquilizers in her pockets. Mrs. Deardorff makes her wait, but Beth doesn’t care. She tries not to think about her punishment, and she is keenly aware of the orphanage’s complicity in giving her the pills in the first place.

Mrs. Deardorff and two other teachers scold Beth for her behavior, but Beth replies that she can’t sleep without the pills. Mrs. Deardorff says that’s why Beth shouldn’t have them, but it’s clear that Mrs. Deardorff is frightened. Beth remarks that they shouldn’t have given her the pills in the first place. Mrs. Deardorff orders her not to talk back, saying that her library, playground, and movie privileges are suspended. Beth will be in chapel 30 minutes early, and if she whispers to other children in class, she will get ten demerits. She will not slip out of chapel and will write a summary of each talk. And finally, no more chess.

The next time Beth goes to get vitamins, the hasp has been replaced on the window. Fergussen smiles at her pleasantly as he gives her the vitamins. Beth is bored at chapel but pays attention to write her report about Mrs. Lonsdale’s warnings about communism. She’s particularly sad about chess, trying not to think about Mr. Shaibel.

Beth has trouble sleeping again, so instead, she starts to memorize the 57 pages on the Sicilian Defense. When that’s done, she moves on to other openings. One morning, she sees Mr. Shaibel in the hall, cleaning. She apologizes, saying that they won’t let her play anymore. He doesn’t say anything to her; he simply goes back to mopping.

That Christmas, two girls are adopted—both pretty, Beth thinks. Both white, Jolene says. Then, one day, Fergussen comes in and tells Beth that she’s moving to the best bed in the ward, under the window. It is a bit larger and has more space around it. She thanks him.