The Queen’s Gambit: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

The U.S. Open is being held in Las Vegas, and upon arrival, Beth immediately sees Townes. He’s not there to play—he’s there to cover the tournament. He remarks at how much she’s grown, and how much better looking she’s gotten. They eat breakfast together before he offers to do a story on her. After they eat, he tells her that he has a camera and chessboards in his room, asking if she wants to come upstairs. She agrees.

In Townes’s room, he takes a few shots of Beth posed in front of the window and a chess board. She realizes that her heart is beating fast, and that her fingers are trembling. When he’s finished, they start to play skittles—speed chess—but all Beth can think about is wishing he would touch her on the arm or the cheek. He smiles easily at her, and she realizes she’s alone in his hotel room. She doesn’t want to play this game—she wants to make love with him.

When Beth returns to their room, Mrs. Wheatley asks where she’s been. She replies that she was playing chess. Mrs. Wheatley asks her to pass a beer, and then offers one to Beth herself. Beth drinks it quickly, feeling warmth pool in her stomach. She thinks about leaving Townes’s room, after they had finished playing. She won seven games against him. Beth finishes her beer quickly and walks over to get another. Mrs. Wheatley is slightly concerned, but she resigns herself to letting Beth have it. Soon after, Beth throws up in the toilet, but she’s made an important discovery: the beer gives her the same feeling as the pills, with almost no wait.

Beth’s first two games are easy, crushing her opponents. Over the course of the day, Beth catches Benny Watts there. He’s in his 20s but looks as young as Beth—he, too, had been a child prodigy at just eight years old. He has straw-colored hair, and he is debating another male player about a defense. Listening to the two of them, she gets the sense that chess is a thing between men, and she is an outsider.

Benny notices Beth and introduces himself. He read the article about her in Life, and he compliments her on the game of hers they printed—the one against Beltik. He tells her, however, that she shouldn’t have castled—she could have lost her king pawn. Beth isn’t sure what he’s talking about, wondering if he’s just trying to show off. He tells her to set up the position and think it out, but she protests as he leaves that she doesn’t need to set it up to think it out. Alone, Beth goes over the game, realizing to her horror that Benny was right. And not only was he right, but she hadn’t even seen her weakness.

Soon after, Beth plays Benny, and he asks her about the Beltik match—she admits through gritted teeth that he was right. She opens with the Queen’s Gambit against him but quickly realizes that it’s a mistake—it’s a complicated position and she grows nervous, while Benny looks calm and precise. She can’t find any way to attack. She is frustrated, knowing that she is the weaker player—a new feeling for her.

Beth looks around for Mrs. Wheatley but doesn’t find her. She then sets her elbows on the table, focusing and realizing that she’s not playing Benny—she’s playing chess. She sorts through several continuations in her mind, and 40 minutes passes until she finds a branch that she likes. She offers to sacrifice her knight, and they exchange a few pieces. At the crucial trade, she worries that he won’t take her knight. But he does, and she starts to double up his pawns, out to win.

Then, Benny quietly captures Beth’s center pawn, sacrificing his queen. Beth is stunned; she’s completely open to checkmates. It’s the kind of surprise that she does to other people. She looks desperately for a way to escape, searching for half an hour. She tries a few moves to get out of it, but he keeps attacking her, and she knows it’s over. She wants to scream; her legs and back are stiff and her stomach is in knots. She sets her king aside and gets up; she shakes his hand when he holds it out and people applaud. They will split the prize money as co-champions.

Mrs. Wheatley tries to console Beth, but Beth is distraught at not seeing what Benny was doing. She says that Mrs. Wheatley doesn’t know anything about chess. When Mrs. Wheatley says she knows what it’s like to lose, Beth replies, “I bet you do,” to which Mrs. Wheatley replies, “And now you do, too.”

Beth does a radio show in Lexington, but she is annoyed that the interviewer asks her about whether chess is a waste of time. Townes’s article also comes out, and she likes herself in the picture. Beth is in high school now, and though there is a chess club, she doesn’t belong to it. She spends about an hour a night on homework and makes As, but the only thing that matters to her is getting better at chess—and learning Russian at a nearby university.