"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." (Francis Bacon)

Sunday, November 01, 2020

Queen's Gambit

TITLE: The Queen's Gambit
AUTHOR: Walter Tevis

I read this back in 1984 and loved it, so I was happy to finally see an adaptation on it. The seven-part limited series on Netflix is great. Because it's been so long since I read it, I thought I'd skim my paperback copy to see if I could spot anything that was changed for the TV show and was immediately sucked back into reading it in its entirety. It held up well, and the changes for TV were mostly minor, with a few more significant changes enhancing the story and better suiting a filmed version. Beth Harmon is a wonderful character and her coming-of-age-through-chess story still enchants. I know next to nothing about chess, but Tevis built up tension in the games that had me reading eagerly even though I knew how they turned out. Mostly, I was happy to have my love for this book undiminished. It's still worth the five stars I gave it previously.

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