Mrs. Deardorff sells Beth to the Wheatleys as a 13-year-old
The adoption interview: Deardorff shaves two years off Beth's age and pitches her as the model Methuen girl while the Wheatleys size her up.
Alma Wheatley
Every The Queen's Gambit moment featuring Alma Wheatley, in story order. Played by Marielle Heller.
31 moments · 40 min
Beth gets a room of her own
Alma tours Beth through the Wheatley house; Beth can barely believe the whole maple-furnished room is hers.
Alma at the piano: stage fright and a lost child
Alma plays Grandmother June's piano and tells Beth about the orchestra career that stage fright and a pregnancy ended.
Allston comes home for one night
Allston blows in with news of a bigger territory and leaves Beth feeling unwanted; Alma insists adopting her was his idea.
No chess set at Ben Snyder's, only a blouse and 40 cents
Alma dresses Beth in cheap clothes with room to grow and brushes off the chess sets with a lesson in saving on a tiny allowance.
Seven dollars, no allowance, and a letter to Mr. Shaibel
Alma cannot explain where the money went and cuts Beth's allowance; Beth asks for a job to enter a tournament, then writes Mr. Shaibel for five dollars.
Alma's tranquility medicine
A sniffling Alma sends Beth to fill her prescription; Beth recognizes the green pills from Methuen and watches Alma wash them down.
Alma admits Allston is gone and promises to be a mother
Beth asks for pads and fetches Alma's pills; Alma reveals Allston is staying away for good, agrees to lie to Methuen, and vows to learn to be a mother.
Alma reads the headline and learns chess pays
Alma reads the newspaper report of Beth's state championship, discovers the prize money, and agrees to open a bank account with her.
Alma plans Cincinnati and a case of mono
Alma has costed out a 500-dollar tournament trip, hotel and bus included, and offers to forge a mononucleosis excuse for school.
Beth looks for weaknesses and finds none
Alma asks why Beth is replaying her own games; Beth's deadpan verdict on her play earns a proud 'good girl'.
Alma meets Matt and Mike after Beth's win
Thrilled by her first live chess game, Alma is introduced to the twins and immediately starts sizing them up.
Dinner talk: the US Open, Europe and the Soviets
Beth asks how to get invited to play abroad; the twins explain that the Soviets are paid professionals who eat Americans alive.
Alma negotiates her agent's commission
Counting the prize money, Alma proposes a cut for herself; Beth does the arithmetic and offers a bigger one.
Alma's scheme: a fake cold and Christmas in Houston
With clippings piling up, Alma phones in Beth's 'relapse' to the school and plans a holiday tournament trip dressed up as a spa vacation.
Best Christmas ever: Gibsons and Russian lessons
Over a hotel Christmas dinner Alma explains her cocktail preference and Beth decides she needs to learn Russian.
Life interview: a whole world in 64 squares
A reporter pushes the orphan-girl angle; Beth answers with why the board, not the pieces, is where she feels safe and in control.
Apophenia: the reporter asks if genius is madness
The interviewer floats pattern-seeing and psychosis; Beth asks if she is being called crazy and Alma ends the interview.
The Life article: 'out for blood' and a toast to motherhood
Alma reads the magazine profile aloud; Beth is annoyed it is all about her being a girl, and calls out Alma's drinking.
The one player who scares Beth
Beth recaps her Open wins and Benny Watts's legend to Alma, then admits the only name that frightens her is the Russian, Borgov.
Beth loses to Benny: the exchange of queens
Beth narrates the final game move by move: the captured center pawn, the forced queen trade and the mating net she never saw coming.
Co-champion: Alma knows what losing feels like
Alma tries to frame the shared title as normal; Beth snaps that she knows nothing about chess, then brushes off Townes's goodbye.
Beth tells Alma she spent the night with a boy
Beth phones home to say she won't be back; Alma's worry turns into a wry warning about famous last words.
Graduation, a Bulova watch and an invitation to Paris
Alma gives Beth a graduation watch and learns the summer schedule: Mexico City, the US Championship, then Paris.
Alma confesses her Mexican pen pal Manuel
Over a beer on the plane, Alma admits she has been writing to a man in Mexico for years and he is meeting them at the airport.
Alma blames the altitude, then the culture
Giddy in the hotel room, Alma philosophizes about Latin Catholics living in the here and now; Beth tells her to stop reading Alan Watts.
Alma tells Beth chess is not all there is
Beth insists she must study endgames before facing a grandmaster; Alma argues intuition can't be found in books and that she needs to relax.
Radio report: Harmon crushes the field in Mexico City
A broadcaster narrates Beth's undefeated run while she recounts a mating net in 31 moves to a delighted Alma.
Alma on the balcony: it was fun while it lasted
Manuel has gone to Oaxaca for good; Alma puts on a brave face and asks Beth to dinner instead.
Alma plays piano for the hotel lounge
Beth finds her mother at the piano with an audience, stage fright forgotten, and the two decide to eat in the room.
Beth recounts the loss, then finds Alma
Beth tells her mother the game felt like a foregone conclusion, Borgov's face showing no doubt and no weakness, before realizing Alma is not answering.