Book Review - The Queen’s Gambit

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis *****

I worked most of Christmas, so when I had time off I relaxed with books, games, and TV. I hesitated to watch The Queen's Gambit because of the topic, but it became one of the best shows I’ve seen. So I decided to read the book.

Brief description - Set in 1960s, Beth is an orphaned chess girl who, through grit and fierce determination, rises to become the nation’s number one player and ultimately faces off in a high-stakes match against the Russian World Champion, Borgov.

I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of this book until I found the Netflix TV show and started reading the book version. The author is a gifted writer, and even though I started this book knowing nothing about chess, I still learned a surprising amount from this. I enjoyed most chess scenes and even started to learn myself, but I'll never be world champion ha! Its crazy how one book can change how you view an unexpected game. It was nice to see an orphaned girl overcome a difficult childhood, fall into addiction to drugs and alcohol, and gradually grow through the thing she loved most, I was gently egging her on at every step of the way.

As much as I loved the TV version, I definitely preferred the book, as in most cases , the book goes into more depth, I felt closer to the characters.

I read it in a week; it was an enjoyable and effortless way to break my reading slump.

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