The Queen's Gambit is a 1983 American novel by Walter Tevis, exploring the life of fictional female chess prodigy Beth Harmon.

"[3] There has been speculation as to the inspiration for the Beth Harmon character, but Tevis emphatically denied that she was based on anyone in the chess community, male or female.

[4] In 2007, actor Heath Ledger was working on what would have been his feature directing debut, an adaptation of The Queen's Gambit, with British writer/producer Allan Scott.

Within a few months Mr. Shaibel confesses he has taught her all he knows and introduces her to a local high school teacher who runs the chess club.

Shortly after Beth beats a group of high school students at chess, she learns that the state is banning the use of tranquilizers on children.

Despite being an unranked player and not having had access to a chess set in five years, Beth not only wins the tournament but defeats the Kentucky state champion Harry Beltik.

In desperate financial straits Mrs. Wheatley begins arranging for Beth to play more tournaments, focusing on the ones with the highest prizes and collecting a 10% agent's fee.

After attending a tournament to defend her Kentucky state champion title and losing badly in the first game, Beth realizes she is an alcoholic.

Harold C. Schonberg, writing in the New York Times Book Review, confirmed that Tevis "reveals a great deal about the world of American Chess, with a final glance at how the Russians operate, and it is an exceptionally accurate picture that he draws."

Schonberg added: "Beth Harmon may not be prepossessing, but she has the dedication of a Biblical saint, a freak memory and an ability to synthesize and create and blow her little world apart with a kind of startling originality that nobody else can match.

(From Contemporary Authors Online, 2007, Gale Reference)Tevis based the chess scenes on his own experience as a "class C" player and on his long study of the game.

He elaborates on this in the Author's Note for the novel: The superb chess of Grandmasters Robert Fischer, Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov has been a source of delight to players like myself for years.

I would like to express my thanks to Joe Ancrile, Fairfield Hoban and Stuart Morden, all excellent players, who helped me with books, magazines, and tournament rules.

And I was fortunate to have the warm-hearted and diligent help of National Master Bruce Pandolfini in proofreading the text and in helping me rid it of errors concerning the game he plays so enviably well.Some criticisms from Edward Winter: The author ... tends to show insufficient ingenuity in his artificially stylized accounts of chess tournaments (e.g. lack of draws and, in the interests of suspense, having Beth meet all her strongest opponents in the final round).

[10] In 1992, Scottish screenwriter Allan Scott purchased the rights from Tevis' widow,[11] and wrote a script for an art house film.

Anya Taylor-Joy plays the lead role of the series, while Scott Frank serves as writer, director, and executive producer.