Orphaned on New Circle Road
Police survey the wreck with barely a scratch on the child; a newspaper clipping tells the staff who nine-year-old Elizabeth Harmon is and what she has lost.
Young Beth's Best Moments
Every The Queen's Gambit moment featuring Young Beth, in story order. Played by Isla Johnston.
22 moments · 35 min · by Favseen
- 01
- 02
Welcome to Methuen Home
Mrs. Deardorff gives Beth the tour of chapel, classroom and dormitory, interrupted by Jolene's foul mouth, and promises the two of them will be good friends.
- 03
Jolene and the magic green vitamins
At the pill window Jolene tells Beth to save the green ones for bedtime, asks her name, and wants to know the last thing her parents ever said.
- 04
Jolene explains who gets adopted
Mary-Sue packs for her new family while Jolene tells Beth that the rest of them are lifers, too old or too Black for anyone to come for them.
- 05
Beth asks Mr. Shaibel what the game is called
Skipping chapel, Beth finds the custodian alone at a board in the basement and asks him to teach her; he does not play strangers.
- 06
Girls do not play chess: the first lesson
Beth returns with an answer for Shaibel, shows what she has learned by watching, and he grudgingly explains how each piece moves before their first game.
- 07
The Scholar's Mate, three Sundays running
Shaibel beats Beth with the same four-move trap week after week and refuses to show her how it works.
- 08
You resign now: Beth refuses to lose gracefully
Shaibel tells Beth that losing her queen means resigning; she insists on finishing, swears at him and is thrown out of the basement.
- 09
Jolene explains what a cocksucker is
Beth asks Jolene the meaning of the word she has been throwing around, and gets a health-book anatomy lesson in return.
- 10
Beth beats Shaibel and learns the Sicilian Defense
After her first win Beth is told not to gloat, then gets her first opening theory: the Sicilian, knight to KB3, and the news that squares have names.
- 11
The Queen's Gambit gets its name
Beth plays an opening Shaibel never taught her; he names it, decides they will take turns with White from now on, and she mates him again.
- 12
Modern Chess Openings and 'you're astounding'
Shaibel shares his whiskey secret, hands Beth the book she needs and, hearing she is only nine, tells her the truth about how good she is.
- 13
Mr. Ganz plays Beth and loses in three
The high-school chess coach visits the basement, lets Beth choose her color, sees mate in three, and learns she plays games in her head on the ceiling.
- 14
The doll, the blindfold mate in three, and 'Say queen!'
Ganz gives Beth a doll she does not want, she calls out a mate-in-three with her eyes shut, and he poses her beside Shaibel for a photo.
- 15
Deardorff allows the simultaneous, then bans basement chess
Mr. Ganz asks to take Beth to play his whole club at once; Deardorff agrees with a chaperone, then calls Beth back to forbid games with the custodian.
- 16
No more tranquilizers: the pills are cut off
Fergussen stops handing out the green pills under a new state law, and Jolene warns Beth about withdrawal and a building full of jumpy orphans.
- 17
The simultaneous: Beth beats the whole high-school club
Beth walks the boards against a dozen players, then tells Shaibel how badly they played, how she tied up their top boy, and that she has never won anything.
- 18
Movie night: Beth raids the pill jar
While the girls watch a Roman epic, Beth slips out to the dispensary, swallows handfuls of tranquilizers and collapses in front of everyone.
- 19
Beth, banned from chess, plans to play in her head
After the stool incident Jolene teases Beth, who vows to memorize the Sicilian from her book, then begs Mr. Shaibel for help.
- 20
Alice Harmon tells young Beth to let men blow by
Cold open: Beth's mother warns her that men will try to teach her things, and that a strong woman stays by herself rather than settle.
- 21
Beth returns to her mother's trailer and remembers Deardorff
Beth and Jolene stop at the abandoned trailer; a Methuen flashback of Mrs. Deardorff on choices and consequences, and Beth decides never to go back in.
- 22
Beth finds Shaibel's wall of clippings in the Methuen basement
Beth goes back down to the basement where she learned chess, discovers Shaibel kept every article about her, and breaks down in Jolene's arms.