Queen's maneuver

The girls do not play chess. I want to play against the best. *** The Queen's Gambit series turned into a real societal phenomenon after it topped the list of most-watched series in Netflix history, bringing chess back to the forefront, achieving record sales worldwide. What secret lies behind this obsession? The answer is between the lines of this wonderful novel by Walter Tavis, which tells the story of Beth Harmon, the orphan girl who learned the basics of chess from a mute guardian in an orphanage basement, to start a brilliant rise and become a famous champion defeating the world's top players, while at the same time fighting her own battle against addiction. We learn from this inspiring heroine how an orphaned, poor girl, raised in conservative 1950s America, can achieve her dreams and reach the top, through her passion, effort, perseverance, and her incredible ability to challenge difficulties, and succeed in building a bright future on the ruins of a miserable past. Let us sit then and clear our minds, and focus our attention on the four squares and the chessboard's checkered pattern. And let us enter Beth Harmon's enchanting world...