Talent, Ambition, Dedication, and Success Theme Analysis

The Queen’s Gambit follows Beth Harmon, an orphaned child who rises to the top of the international competitive chess world. At eight years old, when Beth learns chess from the orphanage janitor, she immediately shows a stunning talent for it, and she becomes quickly known as an “intuitive player.” However, the book emphasizes that innate talent isn’t the only key to the success that Beth achieves, particularly when she defeats the World Champion Vasily Borgov. Instead, the book highlights how Beth is only able to achieve her greatest successes through intense dedication to study; and without that rigorous studying, Beth’s games fall apart. In this way, the book emphasizes that talent can only get a person so far; dedication, drive, and discipline are just as—if not more—important to victory.

When Beth learns chess, her talent immediately shines through, and the reputation she builds early on stems largely from that instinctual skill. Beth learns chess from Mr. Shaibel, the janitor at the orphanage in which she lives. She picks up the game quickly and envisions the chess board in her mind when she plays, sorting through moves and potential problems. As she wins more and more, she thinks about how “simple” it is to beat Mr. Shaibel, and he calls her “astounding.” After three months, Mr. Shaibel can no longer beat her, illustrating her instinct in chess despite little academic knowledge of the game. Later, Beth beats a dozen students simultaneously at a local high school. She notes that “At each board it took only a second's glance to read the position and see what was called for. Her responses were quick, sure and deadly.” This affirms how, even when facing many students much older than her, Beth’s instinctual talent and deadly accuracy allow her to triumph over all of them. When the Wheatleys adopt Beth and she starts playing chess tournaments, she studies games in magazines and some chess books. But, as Mrs. Wheatley notes, the moves where people applaud the loudest are the ones that she makes quickly: “intuition doesn’t come from books.” Beth’s innate talent is what helps build her formidable reputation at the tournaments. Beth herself acknowledges her remarkable talent for the game. At a tournament in Mexico City, she is “quietly amazed at the intricacies that seemed to flow from her fingertips.” This image, of the moves flowing from her fingertips, suggests a natural ease and spontaneous skill that helps her beat many international players.

While Beth’s innate talent is impressive, without studying, her climb through the chess world stagnates. Beth plays U.S. Champion Benny Watts in the U.S. Open, and though she holds her own, she realizes that he has much more knowledge than she does. Beth acknowledges, “The horrible feeling, at the bottom of the anger and fear, was that she was the weaker player–that Benny Watts knew more about chess than she did.” Benny beats her easily, catching her off-guard. While talent has gotten her far, she now understands that she has a lot to learn. Beth finds the same thing in Mexico City, when Beth loses to World Champion Vasily Borgov. She knows that everything Borgov is doing is “unimaginative” and “bureaucratic,” suggesting that Beth simply doesn’t have the knowledge to match Borgov’s studied and rigorous chess. This devastating loss is what spurs Beth to truly study, illustrating her own acknowledgement that her lack of preparation isn’t good enough.

After acknowledging that talent isn’t enough for Beth to beat the strongest chess players, Beth discovers that only through dedicated study can she achieve her greatest success. Harry Beltik—a chess Master—affirms that she needs to study in order to become a World Champion. At first, Beth is still hesitant, noting that other intuitive players like Capablanca “had almost never studied,” while inferior players were forced to rely on books. But Beltik emphasizes that she can only beat grandmasters with “a lot more work,” giving her a pile of books with games and strategies to read through. Beltik affirms that only through a disciplined approach can Beth truly improve. Benny confirms Beltik’s stance, hosting Beth at his apartment in New York City to help her prepare for a tournament in Paris. Benny has the biggest chess library that Beth has seen, and they play through as many games as they can with rigorous interrogation of each move. While this is tedious to Beth, she admits, “She had been playing grandmaster games in her head from the time she first discovered Chess Review, but she had not been disciplined about it,” and she follows Benny’s strict course of study. This acknowledges that while Beth’s talent has gotten her far, she sees how disciplined study is necessary to improve. Beth’s marked improvement as a result of this study becomes clear in her games with both Beltik and Benny. Earlier in the novel, she would only just beat or sometimes lose to Beltik and Benny. But with study, Beth beats Harry and Benny consistently, to the point where they no longer want to play games with her because they cannot win. Only through this rigorous study is she able to achieve a new level of skill. The point is further proven when Beth travels to Russia to play against Borgov. She feels like she is playing the “best chess she knew.” In the end, it is only after having rigorously studied Borgov’s games that she is able to win. The book’s message is clear: Beth’s talent and intuition were key to her rise through the chess world, but only the addition of disciplined training enabled her to take down a world champion.