Work · Novel · 1983

The Queen's Gambit

Walter Tevis, author

Publisher: Random House
Units: 243 pages across fourteen chapters

Walter Tevis's novel follows Beth Harmon from an orphaned eight-year-old who learns chess from a basement janitor to a world-championship contender battling addiction. It was Tevis's last published novel before his death the following year.

Adapted as

Outgoing edges

Novel 1983 → TV series 2020 · Direct adaptationThe Queen's GambitScott Frank's seven-episode miniseries keeps 31 of the novel's 34 mapped beats in place, condenses two and drops one, and adds seven invented beats, among them a mathematician backstory and a deliberate crash for Beth's mother, a reveal of D.L. Townes's sexuality and a later reunion, and Jolene funding the trip to Moscow.78composite · editorial

98Plot77Character75Voice38Theme97Coverage83Restraint

Same spine and people

Adapted from

Incoming edges

This work is not catalogued as an adaptation of anything.