I finished reading "The Queen's Gambit". Contains spoilers

I had the same thought -- even more impressive is that his four books made into movies/series are in three different settings (The Color of Money is a sequel to The Hustler), rather than being many books from a single popular series (like, say, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc.)

Imo  - the OP’s description of two “differences” were quite off- not an accurate portrayal of the scenes in the movie. But that’s really not of much importance as Hollywood took its usual licensing in creating entertainment for the masses.

What was not recognized was quite a substantial difference in Beth’s character - that of “glamour”. Beth was very closely “modeled” after Katherine Hepburn. Quite the beautiful woman and socially well adjusted. In Tevis’s book she was an “ugly duckling” always struggling to become socially accepted. To this point - Hollywood took great liberties in making the character attractive and acceptable.

 

I misread that part of your post ... should have reread before I posted!

Marielle Heller played Beths’s stepmother and had a very substantial role in the series (movie) - which are quite the same thing. She very much took an interest in Beths chess development- after realizing the bills could be payed and her status improved.

No.  It didn't.  

In the book, both mothers were less interesting characters.   Her birth mother played very little role at all in the book, less than in the movie.  Her adopted mother's character was basically the same in the book, except that the film added one peripheral element that was not present in the book.  The focus on the book was even more tightly on Beth than in the movie, so there was even less development of the mother's character.

No?

I was perhaps overly concerned with the final scene, just because that was actually part of my motivation for reading the book.  In the film, there had been discussion about the possibility of Borgov's defection, but nothing came of it.  Meanwhile, Beth and the State Department guy were on their way to the airport when she tells the driver to stop the car.  The handler complains that she will miss her flight, but she gets out, and walks to the park, and plays Chess.

I wondered if this was meant to be a sort of parallel with her rejection of the evangelicals' money.  Was it her defying those who wanted to use her success for propaganda? Did she stay in Moscow?  That wouldn't seem right, but she obviously didn't fly back on her scheduled flight.  What was it all about, and would the book provide any insight?

     Well, in the book, not only was there no additional insight, the incident just didn't happen.  Her trip to the park was on the afternoon after she won her game against Borgov.  She didn't miss her flight home.  She wasn't with a State Department handler.  She just went out to play Chess.

    As for the alcohol and sex binge in Paris, that was the opening scene in the series, repeated later when there was more comprehension about how she reached that point, but in the book, it didn't happen at all.  The Paris match and the second loss to Borgov kind of set up her complete descent into substance addiction, but the substance abuse wasn't a significant aspect of the Paris tournament in the book.

    I'm not certain it was the authors' intent, but I got very different senses of the treatment of substance abuse in the book and in the film.  The events were mostly the same.  As I noted, the Paris incident didn't occur in the book, and there were very slight differences in her encounter with Jolene afterwards, but other than that, there were no serious plot departures.

     However, the film had a sense of Beth's success as a triumph over addiction, which I wasn't sure was intended as I watched the film.  I saw reviews on youtube that echoed that theme, where she overcome her struggles to beat the world champion.

    In the book, it seemed more to me that it was more of a competition between addictions.  Either she was drunk, or she was playing Chess.  One addiction or the other. 

     I could be projecting a bit on that part.  I'm not sure the author of the book or the adapter into film actually intended either theme.  It was something I sensed, but perhaps was not the author's intent.  I do think that both the book and the movie had points where they emphasized chess as at least an obsession, and perhaps an addiction.

I've been curious to check out the book since watching the show, too, so I'm glad you posted this thread.

So if the wild night in Paris before playing Borgov didn't happen in the book, then was the model, Cleo, even in the novel?

There's a fan theory online that her character was actually a spy, sent by the Soviets to distract Beth, and I think it makes a lot of sense. She's a model, but pay attention to how she talks about models with such disdain. She just happened to show up in Paris and tempt Beth the night before her big game with Borgov. And when Beth initially said she couldn't come down to meet her, Cleo's response was exactly what you'd expect from a master manipulator, who knew how to guilt/tempt Beth into coming down to meet her.

She also used to date Benny, presumably when he was at his peak as a player (traveling to Paris for the tourney where he met her) and could have been a threat to beat the top Russians. So she may have been sent as a distraction to him in much the same way.

The scene in Benny's apartment happened in the book, where the two Chess greats show up with a beautiful woman who doesn't play Chess.  That woman, who was not named Cleo, did not put in any other appearance in the book, and her presence was not explained.  There was none of the Cleo's dramatic near suicide.  There was a tiny hint that she was a beautiful, intelligent, woman, who was really into smart guys, and really impressed and admiring of Beth when she beat the smart guys in Chess.