Checkmate, Beth Harmon

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/11/opinion/checkmate-beth-harmon/?p1=SectionFront_Feed_AuthorQuery

An article about the current Covid/"Queen's Gambit" chess boom, authored by a Chess.com outcast.

I am old enough to remember the "Fischer Boom" in the US.  I was a freshman in high school when I joined the school club.  Before that I just played with friends - barely knew the rules. I was the only girl in the club.  At the time, 1971, Fischer was playing in the Candidates Matches, being profiled on television news shows, and appearing as a guest on talk shows.

The club president at my first HS later went on to become a USCF-rated master when he was at UCLA.  He was a serious player, even then - he owned a clock!

So I started reading Issac Kashdan's column every week in the Sunday L.A. Times.  Then my Dad got transferred to Texas and I started at a new school.  I joined the club there to meet some of the people.  It was a little bit of culture shock ... southern California to Texas.  The High School even had designated outside smoking areas for the students!  As I mentioned to some in one of my Chess.com discussion groups, in the basement storage area of the multi-story HS, was a custodians restroom still painted with the warning sign, "Colored Only."

That summer of 1972, we took a family roadtrip through Appalachia, DC, New York City and on to Cape Cod - to visit with distant family - many of whom my parents had not seen since in decades.

Funny thing was, Fischer was all over the newspapers everywhere we went! I was even able to watch Selby Lyman's match coverage show on TV in NYC.

When I got back for the Fall term, I joined the USCF and started to read Chess Digest.  Got some tournament equipment and books through Ken Smith.  It was still kind of isolating being the only girl.  It's like I always had something to prove.  One thing I discovered playing teenaged boys was that they couldn't keep their eyes on the board - I supposed it was the raging hormones.  I was a resourceful player, I used the assests I had to maximum effect.  Being a relatively tall, red headed young woman was an anomaly. I think cleavage won me more than a few games.

By the time I finished HS, my rating was over 1700 and my interst began to wane. I focused on my University studies and spent weekends on field trips or roadbtrips ... my other great passion from my youth was surfing.

I did play in a few college events.  I even got wiped off the board by the Womens US Champion, Diane Savereide, at the Pan Am.  (I never liked playing against other women.) My last peformance rating in competition was over 2100.  But I knew, like the Harry Beltik character in "The Queen's Gambit," my obsession with chess was gone.

After a 25-year professional career, marriage, and raising a family, I found Chess.com and realized I could play again for the fun of it.

Isn't that why we all started in the first place - for the fun of it?

nice tks for sharing. I found chess when Boris & bobby played the world match, I was a Harley guy and it was summer or earl fall, and turned down a few bike adventure with the boy's, the couldn't understand me. Well I read all I could not internet then, I joined a few tournaments and did ok in my class! Then sat across from a young lad, of 12, and learned a lesson! never under mind your opponent, he won the first two , I just got by the 3rd, and was gone in the forth:) his father was the chess club president. I play what I call reactional chess, I don't play I just move, and my score shows it

For those of you who don't know Bruce (BG), he plays in the true Romantic style!

So that's what it's called

He's a Marine, so he plays to win ... always

I sorry to disappoint you, but I now play for the chance to meet people from all over the world, with many different views then my own,  I live my real life as a Marine, but chess has become a cyber society! I have got away from clubs that I never belonged in, liberal views beyond my understanding! Tks for your kind words, but I would say the same regarding you , mu strong female friend!

Very nice article, Jamie! Ken Smith and "Chess Digest"; brings back memories.

For me, the "Boston Globe" piece is behind a paywall. I have not seen "The Queen's Gambit" but have seen trailers. I am very happy that it is helping to interest people in chess. On the other hand, after seeing the trailers, the old fogey in me thinks that it is not about chess. It is about the coming of age of a brilliant young woman, featuring sex and drugs (guaranteed to attract viewers), with chess as the integrating structure, the milieu. Is this unfair?

Sorry about the paywall.  The Globe article was featured in my google news feed.

You are correct, it is in part a coming of age story.  And it is about her defeating her inner demons and overcoming her alcohol and drug problems. But the NetFlix series does use chess competition for dramatic effect.  The 1983 novel featured some of Beth's thinking during the games.

I enjoyed it, and even got teary at the end of Episode 7, when Beth walks among the Russian retirees playing chess, just for the fun of it, in a Moscow park

I just re-read the novel, during my 24-hour mute.

I think I liked the teleplay better.

The "Magician of Riga" is mentioned in the novel by name, but only portrayed as one of Borgov's seconds in the show.

Well Jamie, I find it incredible that the Boston Glode would pay anyone for such a pointless article.  On the other hand, I found your story very engaging and enlightening.  I wish you'd write more about that era your so intimately familiar with.  Like @Zenrider I haven't watched the series but recognize its positive influence on chess.  In that respect Beth Harmon most resembles RJ Fischer. 

Walter Tevis also wrote -

The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Hustler

The Color of Money

All with a similar theme as Gambit. The movie adaptations are regarded as some of the best films in cinema lore. Perhaps the Queens Gambit will be remembered along side. Hollywood took it’s usual liberties - mainly  in the novel Beth was the ugly duckling and not particularly socially adept. But so what ? Great entertainment. Expect true life? Read the novel.

(Not a girly flick in the least. That guy and his chauvinism displayed regarding woman in chess has got to go.  The main character being female adds to the theme of overcoming life’s curveballs.)

Hi, Sarah.  This is high praise, especially coming from you!  It's true, Harmon is "Fischeresque,"  with regard to her talent, growth, and abandonment issues.

What I was recalling from my mis-spent youth was being the rare girl in a male dominated game.  So I relate to the characterization of Beth.   I sort of repeated that theme in my career (geological sciences).  Lolz.  Glutton for punishment.

I remember an article you wrote about a match for the US Womans Championship, played in the 1940s (?).  I think it was between Adele Rivero Blecher and Mona May Karff.  Al Horowitz tried to raise $500 through Chess Review.  As it was, he barely raised $200, and the two women got a check for s little under $100, each.

It was tough for women, back then.  And we forget the positive effect Bobby had on chess prize money and conditions.

Here is the link to Batgirl's article:

http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/1941.html

Adele Rivero is one of my all time favorite players. 

The USCF credits her with being the first U.S. Women's champion, but I have been able to find a single shed of corroborating evidence that the 1937 Marshal Club contest, which Rivero easily won, was for a national title.  It was indisputably for the championship of the NCF.  I outlined my arguments here.   Curiously, N May Karff won the first championship expressly for the US women's title (in 1939). Rivero didn't play in 1939 but in 1940, she totally dominated the event, winning the title, then in 1941 she lost the title to... N May Karff (in match play).  But many people may not be aware that besides being a U.S. Women's Champion, she was also the first women to win an open (overall) State Championship when she became the Vermont Champion in 1954. (the only other women to accomplish this was Irene Vines who won the Louisiana State Championship in 1956). 

I had also found an interesting article in the Parade section of the August 29, 1936 issue of "Literary Digest" that's more germane to this discussion:

     "'More American women would take up chess if there was anything in it for them,'
declared Mrs. Adele Rivero, twenty-eight, the undisputed, if unofficial, woman's chess champion of the United States. 'The game needs a whale of a lot of publicity just as bridge had. At the present time there are very few American women who even play a passable game.'
     With the current tournament at Nottingham in progress and plans being laid for the seventh International Chess Olympiad in Stockholm next year, several American clubs were reported trying to organize a women's team to represent this country.
     'But where are we to get the funds?' asked Mrs. Rivero. 'A chess player, as such, has a hard time making a living. I'd go gladly if I knew I could get my job back later.'
     Blond, with blue eyes, and an 'A' rating for chess—even among men—Mrs. Rivero
is a stenographer [she worked for General Motors- BG]. During the winter she plays one tournament a week and receives from ten to fourteen dollars for the four hours of play. Born in Antwerp, she has been in New York for eighteen years and has been playing chess for three seasons.
     She doesn't like bridge and her greatest ambition is some day to meet Miss Vera Menchikova, thirty-two-year-old Czechoslovakian chess champion. Since residing in
England she is known as Miss Menchik but is the most highly respected player of her sex.
      Among the thousand-odd American women chess players, others who rate highly are Mrs. Mary Bain, formerly of Los Angeles; Mrs. Raphael E. McCready, Mrs. W. I. Seaman, Mrs. L. Milton, Miss Celia Fawns and Mrs. William Slater — all of New York."

No, I didn't disappear for 30 years.  I went to college, started a career, married, and began my family.

The significance that Fischer's title run had on Western chess, cannot be understated.  Were you even alive then?  The membership in the USCF hit record levels.  So did sales of chess equipment and chess books.

Yes, some people do play chess for fun.  Even some "serious" players. 

Pizza did win the Cold War!

God bless pepperoni.

A commercial boom of sorts took place for the casual players and beginners with Chessmaster and Yahoo. These early programs were weak, the playing interfaces unattractive and inferior. The average player never gave them a 2nd look.

The real boom took place in the late 70,s early 80’s in the U.S. when sponsors and organizers were found that started to put on Tournaments that attracted large numbers of players competing for big$. ICC and later PlayerChess in 1992 were the 1st online sites of note to be played on by serious players. At the same time Fritz was developed. The 1st engine of real note.

We’ll have to wait and see if this Beth Harmon phenomenon is anything more than a passing fad. What we see are people watching streams but how many are actually playing more than a few games?

ICC didn't exist until 1995. It was a commercialized version of ICS that was created in 1992.  There was no boom attributed to ICS, because it and later ICC and FICS were telnet sites, not websites, and many members played without even the benefit of a GUI.  Early on these places pretty much appealed to a select group of people (many of whom were techies rather than serious players) willing to traverse the complexities of a command driven telnet protocol.  Yahoo Chess, which started around 1998 was probably the first chess site that appealed to a widespread audience. It had a beautiful interface but wasn't a particularly pleasant place unless you want to play a friend in a private room..  I never heard of PlayerChess, unless you mean playchess.com but it didn't exist pre-1995 when IE was introduced - and probably closer to 2000. 

Here is some discussion about the Queen's Gambit:

http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=76047