Evans On Chess. February 16, 1996. Copyright Chesstours. All rights
reserved.

                            FEMALE OF THE SPECIES

You don't have to play chess to enjoy "The Queen's Gambit" (1983), the
last novel from the pen of the late Walter Tevis. The queen of the title
is Beth Harmon, an orphan who storms the male bastion of chess by the age
of 19.

In an interview with Chess Life, America's premier chess magazine, the
author said he learned chess at seven but wasn't a strong player (1423
rating). He averred that tournament competition made him too nervous and
claimed to be better at pool, a world he captured so well in his novel
"The Hustler."

"Neither game is a team sport, both are male-dominated, and many players
are loners trying to escape from personal problems. You don't get the
girls in high school by being a chess or a pool player." We were reminded
of these words when British grandmaster Michael Adams said recently:
"Probably if you meet the right girl it won't really matter that you're a
chessplayer."

Tevis also said he liked writing about outcasts from society, those
highly intelligent yet out of place characters: "I love Beth and I'm
touched by her ability to find what she can do best -- stay with it --
and be able to survive and deliver."

Tevis saw no biological reason why the female of the species can't rise
to the top: "I think it would be good if women don't play in women's
tournaments at all. Doing so only reinforces the notion of women's
inferiority. I would like to see chess be a sexless game." His book
anticipated the rise of the fabulous Polgar sisters, who had to fight
Hungarian chess bureaucrats in order to compete only in mixed events.

Despite some minor lapses in his novel, Tevis displays a firm grasp of
technical details. Descriptions of Beth's games are thrilling and tense,
and can be understood even by non-chess addicts.

"People who say that chess is trivial and just a game aren't looking very
hard at what they're doing in their lives that they claim to be
important. You can't get by in chess on bull. You have to see chess taken
more seriously. I don't like seeing golf get all the money and attenion
that it does while chess gets none."

Unlike the real world, none of Beth's games ended in a draw. Only one of
her short losses can actually be followed on a chess board -- it's
against a fictional male titleholder whose name ends in "ov." In this
"game" Beth soon got in trouble by veering from the usual 9...Be7. Later
the nervous heroine failed to find 13...c4 14 b4 h5 15 f3 Ng5 saving the
Knight.

White: "VASILY BORGOV" Black: BETH HARMON Ruy Lopez

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Nxe4 6 d4 b5 7 Bb3 d5 8 dxe5
Be6 9 Qe2 Na5 10 Nd4 c5 11 Nxe6 fxe6 12 c3 Nxb3 13 axb3 Qb6? 14 Be3 Be7
15 Qg4 0-0 16 f3 d4 17 Bh6 Black Resigns
