The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Tevis, Walter. The Queen's Gambit. Rosetta Books, 1983. Kindle.

The novel is narrated in the third-person past by a traditional narrator who keeps close to the protagonist, Beth Hammond. Beth was eight when her mother died in a car accident. Since her father was already dead and she had no other family members, Beth was taken to an orphanage: The Methuen House. The policy of the orphanage at the time of her admittance was to give all the orphans tranquilizers to stabilize their moods and make them easier to deal with. Beth did not know anything about the pills or what they might do to her body, but she did enjoy the calm feeling they produced in her and she began to hoard them so she could take multiples on certain nights. Her addiction got so bad that she could not sleep at night if she did not take a pill. She felt scared and alone, and her only friend was an older girl, Jolene.

One day, Beth saw the janitor, Mr. Shaibel, playing chess in the basement. She asked him if he could teach her, but he told her it was not a game for girls, She continued to come to the basement and watch him play. He finally relented and allowed her to play with him. In three months he was no longer able to beat her. He invited the high school chess coach, Mr. Ganz, to come meet her. Mr. Ganz was shocked at her ability and approached the superintendent of Methuen House, Mrs. Deardorff. He told her that Beth was extremely talented and invited her to come to an exhibition at the high school where she would play 12 students at once. She was excited to go, but then the state found out that the orphanage had been giving children tranquilizers and banned the practice. Beth started having withdrawal symptoms. Before the exhibition, Jolene gave her a pill so she could focus. Beth beat all 12 students but was depressed because she had no more pills. She snuck into the room where all the pills were kept and attempted to steal them, but she took too many in the process of stealing them and was discovered by Mrs. Deardorff. As a punishment for her theft, Mrs. Deardorff banned Beth from ever playing chess again.

When Beth was almost 13, she was adopted by a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley. Beth was excited to get her own room. Mr. Wheatley spent a lot of time away, and Mrs. Wheatley seemed spacey and out of touch with reality. However, Mrs. Wheatley did not forbid Beth from playing chess. After Mr. Wheatley left the family, Beth and Mrs. Wheatley decided to lie to the orphanage so that Beth would not have to go back, since they had rules banning single parents from adoption. When Mrs. Wheatley learned that Beth was winning hundreds of dollars for playing chess, she started taking her out of school and travelling with her to competitions all over the country. In her first match, Beth beat the Kentucky State Champion, Beltik, and she soon earned a reputation for being a successful female prodigy that landed her an article in Life magazine. However, she was unable to attend the U.S. Open because Mrs. Wheatley got sick during the week they were supposed to attend the tournament.

When Beth was 16, she finally went to the U.S. Open and faced off against the U.S. Champion, Benny Watts. She lost against him, but was still named Co-Champion of the tournament. After Beth graduated from high school, she went to Mexico with Mrs. Wheatley. Beth faced off against the chess World Champion, Borgov, and resigned because she was so intimidated by him. When she went back to her room, she found that Mrs. Wheatley had died. Beth called Mr. Wheatley and told him what had happened, but he did not care. He said she could keep the house if she dealt with the arrangements for Mrs. Wheatley.

Beth went back home to Kentucky and got a call from Beltik, who said he had heard about Borgov. He offered to train with her, and she invited him to live with her. They started a sexual relationship, but when she became a better chess player than him, he no longer wanted to be with her and he left. She went back to the U.S. Open and finally beat Benny Watts, becoming the U.S. Champion. Benny invited her to come to New York City and live with him so they could train for the Moscow Invitational together.

After training for months with Benny, Beth went to Paris and played against Borgov. She played her best, but he beat her. Devastated, she returned to her house in Kentucky only to discover that Mr. Wheatley wanted it back. She paid him off and spiraled into an alcohol-fueled depression. She did not play chess for months and spent every day and night drinking humongous amounts of alcohol. She went to the Kentucky state tournament to defend her title and lost to an amateur in her first game. Horrified, she resigned from the tournament and went home. She called Jolene to help her quit drinking and they started going to the gym together. Beth got healthy and went to San Francisco where she was greeted with cheers and pleas for autographs.

After training for months on end by herself, she went to Russia to face off against Borgov. As always, she was the only woman in the tournament. She felt out of place and scared, but she played her best and beat Borgov. Afterwards, he hugged her.