The Queen’s Gambit: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

After winning the Kentucky State Championship, Beth goes into town one day after school to open a bank account with her winnings, but at 13 she needs a guardian to do so. When she gets home, she finds Mrs. Wheatley sitting hazily next to four empty beer bottles. Beth looks at the newspaper, which to her surprise, has a picture of her on the front page. In the article, Harry Beltik said she showed “a mastery of the game unequaled by any female.”

Beth asks Mrs. Wheatley to help her open a bank account, and Mrs. Wheatley is astonished to see how much money Beth won—she didn’t realize that people won so much money from chess tournaments. The next day, after going to the bank, Mrs. Wheatley comes up with a plan to have her go to a tournament in Cincinnati the second week in December: the first prize is $500. Mrs. Wheatley has come up with a budget for the trip so that they can make a good profit. Soon after, Beth buys Modern Chess Openings from Morris’s and then she buys a chess set from Purcell’s Department store. When she gets home, she opens the book, starting from the beginning.

Beth and Mrs. Wheatley stay at the Gibson Hotel in Cincinnati, in a huge suite with a color TV and beautiful furniture. The tournament is in the hotel; though Beth still doesn’t have a rating, the men in the lobby know who she is. There are two games a day with a time control of 120/40—two hours to make 40 moves.

When Beth is signing in, she hears a deep voice coming from a strange young man on a sofa dressed in all black. Everyone is listening to him as he talks about the Caro-Kann defense, which he explains is flawed. Beth wanders over to watch as he demonstrates the problem with the move on a board; she is the only girl in the room. Beth has never seen these moves, though she knows them.

As the man moves the pieces, Beth makes a suggestion about what to move next. He notes that she’s the girl who wiped out Harry Beltik, but he shows the holes in her move. Beth is excited watching his display; the game he is demonstrating is dazzling, like some of the best ones that she has seen in books. The man stands up and stretches, explaining that Reshevsky—who played the game he was demonstrating—was playing this way when he was Beth’s age, calling her a little girl.

Beth wins her first match easily and then goes out with Mrs. Wheatley, hoping to buy a cashmere sweater. She tries to imagine herself as a member of the Apple Pi club, but she still feels somewhat ugly. Later in the afternoon, she plays a middle-aged man ranked 1910, and she beats him after an hour and a half. She sees a few familiar faces and feels comfort in seeing them, but she is disappointed when she doesn’t see Townes. That evening, Beth studies some endgames, but she is often bored by endgames because they are subtle and slow—no chance for the violent attack she loves. She takes two pills and drifts off—she wants to make sure she can sleep.

The second day is as easy as the first for Beth, though she plays better players. In the final match, Beth at first seems trapped and disadvantaged, but she manages to stave off her opponent until he makes a mistake, which she quickly takes advantage of. She wins the match to applause, and Mrs. Wheatley is there to congratulate her. That evening, they calculate that Beth has made over $300. She wonders if she should offer to split the money with Mrs. Wheatley when Mrs. Wheatley asks about taking a 10% commission. Beth agrees, even though she doesn’t want to give Mrs. Wheatley any money.

That evening at dinner, over veal and a carafe of wine, Mrs. Wheatley suggests going to another tournament over Christmas in Houston, and Beth agrees—calling her “Mother.” Time jumps to their flight to Houston—their Christmas dinner is microwave turkey on an airplane, with champagne for Mrs. Wheatley. It is the best Christmas that Beth has ever had. They plan out more tournaments for Beth to go to—one a month, so as not to make the school suspicious. In Houston, Beth wins the tournament without any trouble, even though she has to draw her third game. More articles come out about her, calling her a “Wunderkind.”

Beth continues to attend and win tournaments through March. She loves traveling with Mrs. Wheatley, who is high-spirited and amusing. She loves hotels and restaurants and the excitement of winning. People recognize her there—she is always the youngest and sometimes the only woman. School seems more and more drab in comparison, particularly because she talks to no one about her travels. After the tournament in March, Beth finally gets a rating: 1881. The next big step is Master, at 2200.

That summer, Beth attends a tournament in New York, which she loves. Her only problem is that she takes pills each night to help her sleep, and sometimes she needs an hour to clear her head in the morning, so she often drinks several cups of coffee. Mrs. Wheatley doesn’t know about the pills and largely treats Beth as an adult—sometimes Beth feels as if she were the older of the two. Together, they get fancy dinners and go to the Radio City Music Hall.

Soon after, a reporter from Life, Jean Balke, comes to the house to take pictures and interview Beth. The reporter asks about what it’s like to play with all those older men, explaining that she was never allowed to be competitive. She asks if Beth has a boyfriend, but Beth says she’s 14 and interested in chess. She tries to talk about how she learned the game, but Beth can tell the woman is not really interested.

A week later, the article comes out, talking about how chess is a “birthright” for Beth, who exploded onto the male-dominated world of the nation’s top chess tournaments. Beth buys a copy, and she sees that it talks about the orphanage and gives one of her games—but it’s mostly about her being a girl. Mrs. Wheatley assures her that it makes her a celebrity, but Beth laments that it doesn’t talk enough about chess or the way she plays.

The next day, Margaret invites Beth to a pledge party for the Apple Pi’s. Mrs. Wheatley helps Beth pick out a dress, but at the party, Beth finds it tedious. The girls don’t ask her about chess, they only ask her about the boys at the tournaments and whether she dated any of them. Later in the evening, they watch a movie. She is astounded at how dull it is—she doesn’t participate in the gossip and laughter. She’s relieved when she gets home, spending an hour with another chess book.

At the next tournament, Beth doesn’t even have to lie about being sick because the school now knows about her winnings. At the tournament, the director takes Beth and Mrs. Wheatley out to dinner, and they talk about Beth’s wanting to compete in the U.S. Open and then internationally. He warns her that Russian players are very good: Russia pays people to play chess.

Unfortunately, Beth is unable to go to the U.S. Open that year. Mrs. Wheatley is sick in bed for two weeks and Beth doesn’t want to make the trip to Los Angeles alone. The Open isn’t as important as the U.S. Championship, but she’s sad to miss it, because she wants to start getting into invitation-only tournaments. She wants to become a truly professional woman and the finest chess player in the world, traveling confidently by herself. By the time Beth turns 16, she’s taller and better looking, and her bank account is growing. But she is too old to be called a prodigy anymore—she feels like she has plateaued.