Beth Harmon (Elizabeth Harmon) Wiki, Age, Family, Relationships, Real Life Adaptations, Biography & More – WikiBio
Beth Harmon (also known as Elizabeth Harmon) is a fictional character in the American novel The Queen’s Tactics (1983) by American novelist Walter Tevis. The novel is adapted into a 2020 Netflix miniseries of the same name.
Book
The Queen’s Tactics was written by novelist and short story writer Walter Tevis. This book was published by Random House in 1983. The book is a coming-of-age novel and coming-of-age story that focuses on issues such as feminism, drug addiction, and alcoholism. It features the life of fictional female chess prodigy Beth Harmon.
the series
The Queen’s Tactics is a 2020 American coming-of-age miniseries based on Walter Travis’ 1983 novel of the same name, telling the story of Beth Harmon. The series is co-written and directed by American filmmaker and writer Scott Frank with producer and screenwriter Alan Scott. It’s a seven-episode series starring Argentine-British actress Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth. The younger version of Beth is played by American children’s artists Isla Johnston (teen Beth) and Annabeth Kelly (five-year-old Beth). The series airs on Netflix on October 23, 2020.
This series is the first adaptation of the book. However, author, journalist, and screenwriter Jesse Kornbluth first attempted an adaptation of the script, and later with Heath Ledger (who was battling addiction and was a chess player himself) , he was preparing a feature film before his death in 2008.
Wiki/Biography & Career
Beth Harmon was a Kentucky chess prodigy who dominated the male-dominated (chess) game in the 1950s and 1960s. After her mother died in a traffic accident, she was sent to Maythune House, a women’s Christian orphanage in Stirling Hill; she was eight at the time. At the orphanage, the children were given green pills, which, according to the book, were sedatives given to her twice a day to help her doze off at the orphanage. She is good at math, history and science. One day, she was sent to the basement to erase the chalkboard, when she witnessed William Scheiber, the janitor, playing alone with a green and white checkerboard. Later, it was Chapelle who introduced her to chess. After Shaibel refused to teach her because she was a girl, she started learning how to play chess and began hallucinating (due to an overdose of green pills) on a chess board on the ceiling of her room, where she played chess in her mind. Her addiction grew over time. However, after the match with Shaibel (which she lost), she started playing with him more and learned new tactics.
Sometime in the future, she played a game with a dozen players from Mr Ganz’s Duncan High School who had previously lost to Beth in the basement. Before the game, she started experiencing withdrawal symptoms because she couldn’t get pills because of a new state law banning sedatives for children. That day, after the black orphan and her friend Jolene gave Beth the last two pills, she won the match against the Twelve.
However, her drug addiction began to conflict with her daily life. It was also when she first entered a chess tournament and gained local fame. Three years after her adoption in 1963, she competed in the U.S. Championship and was called the U.S. Combined Champion. She is a graduate of Fairfield High School in Kentucky. She won many chess tournaments, including the Las Vegas U.S. Chess Open (1966), the Moscow Invitational (1968), and the Kentucky State Championship. Although she is a chess star, her biggest fear is Vasily Borgov, the Russian world champion and Beth’s strongest competitor. Her ultimate goal is to defeat Borgov, but every time they go up against each other they fail. At the end of the story, she took part in the Moscow International, where she had her final match against Borgov and beat him after refusing to draw.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′ 7″
eye color: hazelnut
hair color: Auburn
family relationship
parents and siblings
Her mother’s name is Alice Harmon and her father’s name is Paul. In 1963, she was adopted by Alma and Allston Wheatley as a teenager. The Wheatleys adopted her because Alma lost her child before adopting Beth. Losing a child was traumatic for Alma as she turned to alcohol, which later led to Beth’s alcoholism.
relation
She developed an intimate relationship with Harry Bertick, who later parted ways.
She also indulged in a night out with Benny Watts, who tutored her in chess after she discovered her weakness in chess. Under Benny’s lead, she found herself able to play without sedatives.
At the end of the book, she is still single. She is also involved with DL Townes (chess player and journalist).
real life adaptation
After the success of the Netflix series, many people began to wonder if Beth Harmon was real. Although the author himself has never talked about the inspiration for the character Beth, there has been a lot of speculation about who Beth might be.
Author: myself
Walter Tevez was born in San Francisco, California in 1928. He grew up in Kentucky, where The Queen’s Gambit is located. Towards the end of World War II, he served in the Pacific Theater as a Navy carpenter’s deputy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hamilton. After graduating with an MA in English Literature from the University of Kentucky, he wrote many short stories, which were published in many newspapers and magazines. In 1959, his first novel, The Liar, was published. Walter Tevez was interviewed by The New York Times after the publication of The Queen’s Tactics. In an interview, he admitted that part of the story came from his real experience of playing chess. In the 1980s, he started playing chess with his sister and neighbor’s children; he was rated as a C-level player (amateur rankings start with A, in alphabetical order). He may not have reached Beth’s level, but according to him,
I started playing chess for the first time with my sister and the kids in my neighborhood. I once won $250 and became a C-level player. I play against the computer now so I don’t have to face real life opponents who laugh at me – I can always pull the plug. I play well enough to know what a good game is. I can beat the average guy, but I’m terrified of playing the guy who’s on Broadway. “
The drug use angle in the story also comes from his real-life struggle with drugs. According to him,
When I was young, I was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease and was given massive medication in the hospital. This is where Beth’s drug dependence in the novel comes from, writing her as a laxative. There was some pain – I had a lot of dreams while writing that part of the story. But artistically, I don’t allow myself to indulge myself. “
In another interview with the San Francisco Examiner, he further explained his experience with drug addiction, saying he took phenobarbital three times a day; he was recovering from a heart attack in a nursing home. He further said,
I love it. …that’s probably one of the reasons why I’m drunk”
Years later, he played chess as a pastime while dealing with alcoholism. He said,
I think that if most people had personality issues, they would play chess very seriously. When they try to stay away from other things in life. You know, get rid of that anxiety by moving it to a place of relative safety. “
According to him, Beth’s role is a tribute to clever women, including his daughter Julie and his aunt, who gave him his first chess game as a gift when he was seven. Speaking of Beth, he said,
I love Beth’s bravery and intelligence. In the past, many women had to hide their brains, but not today. “
Vera Menchik
Vera Menchik was born in the winter of 1906 into a wealthy family with a mill in Moscow. During the Russian Revolution (1917-23), her family found themselves in the midst of a civil war because her family’s mill was confiscated. The family had to share their house with others and eventually lost ownership. Vera was forced to transfer schools. In her words,
During the winter of 1919-20, the school I attended was without water, heat, and lights for a while, but classes continued, with students in fur-lined coats and hats reading candles or oil lamps under a few flickering lights, Then maybe an hour-long walk through the snow to get home because all traffic stops after get off work. “
For inner comfort, she turned to chess, a game her father taught her when she was nine. As if the Russian Revolution wasn’t enough, she was devastated after her parents divorced, and Vera moved to England with her sister Olga and their mother, a native of the state. In England, she joined a local chess club and took private lessons as she challenged the best male players of the day. In her letter to Chess Magazine, she wrote,
I am often asked, what made me think about chess seriously? It seems that the atmosphere of silence and smoke is not suitable for young ladies. It does! In other life circumstances I wouldn’t think of killing time this way, but chess is a quiet game and therefore the best hobby for someone who doesn’t speak the language. “
She has excelled from being the first in local and regional competitions to national and international competitions. She won the first Women’s World Chess Championship in 1927. After consistently beating the women, she set goals for the men’s championship and beat them. In 1929, at the age of 23, she created the…
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