Although the month is not clarified, Harmon is most likely seventeen at the time, as the weather appears warmer and therefore before her birthday in November.
Beth (age 22) - 2700 playing strength: Beth has been dreaming of playing for the world championship for two years and aspires to be the youngest World Chess Champion ever.
Nine year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is, until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control.
This week, we watched and discussed the second episode of “The Queen's Gambit,” which followed Beth as she gets adopted at age 13 and enters a chess tournament.
Both Fischer and Beth won the U.S. Championship whilst still in their teens (in the same year, 1967, no less.) Beth would have been 18 while Fischer became the youngest ever U.S. Champion at 14 years and 10 months.
Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), whilst not declared autistic, was heavily coded as such. And rather than playing into stereotypes (one can just imagine how a lazy interpretation of an autistic chess prodigy would come across), Taylor-Joy gives the role complex and dynamic layers.
Harmon is 15. Harmon discovered this tournament through Mrs. Wheatley, who initially took a solely monetary interest in chess, yet she grew fond of the art after watching Harmon's games in this tournament.
Benny was first introduced into the show in episode 3. At the time he was 23 and visiting the U.S. opening in Cincinnati where he met Beth. She was 15 when they met and had just won the Kentucky State championship.
Beth is either 19 or 20 at the end of The Queen's Gambit, as the tournament in Russia takes place in 1968, but the time of year is not clear. Based on the fact that she's described as being 20, the event likely takes place late in 1968, after her birthday in November.
Townes is a handsome chess player in his 20s whom Beth meets during the Kentucky State Championship. Beth likes him because he acknowledges her skill despite her young age and gender, unlike some of the other men at the tournament.
While the Harmon character herself is fictionalized, many of the show's narrative beats were inspired by real-life events. Harmon's rise to prominence is loosely inspired by the life of American Chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer.
Beth Harmon is a fictional character.
The character, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, was created by Tevis for his book, and there weren't many world-famous female players in the spotlight at the time to inspire him.
The Queen's Gambit May Not Be a True Story, But the Chess Matches Are Very Real. Netflix's story about an orphan turned global champion shows the real sexism within competitive chess.
Did You Know? "The Queen's Gambit" Took Nearly 30 Years in the Making. Late actor Heath Ledger was actually involved during the early stage of the project.
At the end of the book, Beth learns that Mr. Shaibel died of a heart attack and attends his funeral with Jolene. Afterward, she takes a trip back to Methuen and discovers that Mr. Shaibel closely followed her career for years, putting up pictures and articles about her on the wall in the orphanage basement.
After meeting The Queen's Gambit's Townes at her first chess tournament, Beth develops a crush on him, and the two navigate a complex friendship that follows them for the rest of their lives.
As, there are multiple contexts that Beth Harmon was suffering from multiple aversive childhood experiences leading to childhood trauma and depression at the early age leading to Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in her adulthood.
Throughout Netflix'sThe Queen's Gambit, Townes' toxic impulse to sleep with Beth could be because of his attraction to a fantasy version of her, and his subsequent rejection of that impulse is what finally affords them a healthy relationship.
Beth politely takes the doll, under the instruction of Mr. Shaibel, but satisfyingly chucks it in the trash after leaving the room--showing that she will not bend to fit anybody else's idea of who she should be.
On the show, Beth's relationship with Benny is the most romantic one she has, but in the novel, Beth doesn't sigh and say “So that's what that's supposed to be like!” after having sex with Benny.
So besides the fact that Cleo has slept in Beth's bed (without Beth sleeping next to her), there are no other proofs that would say that they had sex. Most likely, they got drunk, went to Beth's room, got drunk more and eventually passed out.
Jolene is African American and is 12 when the novel begins. She is protective of eight-year-old Beth, helping Beth with her addiction to the tranquilizers at the school and helping her improve in gym so that she's not afraid of sports like volleyball.
After a few scenes, we see Beth arriving at a zoo where she spots Borgov relaxing with his family along with his bodyguards. As we learned, those were not Borgov's bodyguards there to protect him -- they're KGB there to make sure he doesn't defect.
The white and green pills Beth takes in The Queen's Gambit are referred to as “xanzolam;” however, this is a fictional drug that is thought to represent tranquilizers like Librium, formally known as chlordiazepoxide, which was a popular drug in the 1960s for treating anxiety.
Elizabeth "Beth" Harmon is a fictional American character and the main protagonist in the Walter Tevis novel The Queen's Gambit and the Netflix drama miniseries of the same name, in which she is portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy. Taylor-Joy's performance as Beth was critically acclaimed.