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Aug. 16th, 2021 06:48 pmSTATISTICS
Elizabeth Harmon
FULL NAME
20
AGE
November 2nd, 1948
BIRTHDAY
Kentucky
BIRTHPLACE
Alma Wheatley (adopted)
PARENTS
Single
MARITAL STATUS
Chess Player
OCCUPATION
PERSONALITY
Being a woman in a time when few women participate in competitive chess, Beth often feels misunderstood and misrepresented. In private she may express her frustrations more openly, but in front of the press it comes out in the form of calmly expressed witty comments.She tends to run hot and it usually works in her favor. This way, her passion for chess comes out more intensely. It also means that she sometimes comes across as angry, but why shouldn’t she be? Life has often treated Beth unfairly and though she’s been given a great gift that doesn’t mean it’s an even trade-off.
Beth can be self-absorbed, putting her own needs and wants ahead of everyone else’s. This is especially true with her career. She accepted the money from Jolene without giving a second thought to what her friend had to sacrifice. It isn’t rare for her to make unkind comments even to those she cares deeply about.
Underneath it all, even though she is a capable person who can navigate the world alone, she is truly a vulnerable young woman who is still learning how things work. Her life is a mess, a conglomeration of feelings. She is celebrating great success while at the same time grieving the loss of her childhood. It’s dizzying, but she’s handling it.
APPEARANCE
Beth stands at 5’6” ½ but carries herself as if she is just as tall as her male colleagues. She is slender and wears her fashionable clothing well. Her skin is a pale shade of ivory and her hair is auburn. Large, brown doe-eyes that always reflect what she is thinking are the highlight of her face. It isn’t unusual for Beth to touch her face or for her to fold her hands just beneath her chin.
ABILITIES & SKILLS
CHESS
Beth is an expert chess player, often considered to be the best in her field. The moves she is proudest of are the ones she makes quickly on the spur of the moment. Morphy was said to have been the pride and sorrow of chess and it is said that Beth is the same.
RUSSIAN
Beth speaks Russian. She became fluent in college. For a long time she let people believe that she could not understand the language so she could eavesdrop on the KGB and hear what they were saying about her.
SURVIVAL
Survival isn’t usually considered when it comes to special abilities, but Beth grew up in a harsh environment, Methuen, learned a trade that could support both her and her adoptive mother, and then learned how to live completely on her own in spite of many slings and arrows. She is definitely a survivor.
HISTORY
Beth Harmon was orphaned at a young age and sent to Methuen Home, an orphanage for young girls. It was there that she met Mr. Shaibel quite by accident. He was a janitor who played chess in the basement on his breaks by himself. Beth would wander down there, assigned with the task of cleaning erasers because she had finished her classwork ahead of everyone else. Over time, she was able to persuade Mr. Shaibel to teach her how to play the game and the two of them discovered that she had more than just a natural talent for it; she was a genius.Mr. Shaibel was the one to let the head of a high school chess club know about Beth’s talent for the game and this man organized a simultaneous game in which Beth would play the best players in his club all at the same time. Of course, Beth beat all of them.
Beth and her friend Jolene grew up at Methuen, thinking they’d spend all of their formative years together there, but in her mid-teens a couple came and adopted Beth much to Jolene’s chagrin. She would leave Jolene and Mr. Shaibel, the two most important people in her life, behind to start a new life with Alma and Allston Wheatley.
While high school was an absolute drag for Beth, it wasn’t long before she entered her first chess tournament with help from Mr. Shaibel who sent her the money to pay the entrance fee. Beth swept everyone there off of their feet and beat both novices and experts alike, winning the tournament. This was the start of her chess career.
Allston seemed to slip off, leaving both Beth and Alma to fend for themselves financially. That was okay – They had a plan. Beth’s chess career was booming. Alma would call Beth out of school sick and the two of them would simply hop onto planes and go wherever the tournaments were held. Beth would win almost every time and collect the prize money. The chess world was buzzing with her name.
Unfortunately, things couldn’t be good forever. Alma’s drinking caught up with her. She died from liver failure while she and Beth were away at a tournament in Mexico. Beth was now alone as Alma had once warned her she would be one day.
In addition to abusing the tranquilizers she had gotten addicted to in her childhood at Methuen, Beth was now abusing alcohol like Alma once had. Her trash was full of empty bottles and she was hungover at tournaments. Her friends who played against her were concerned for her. She was set to play the Russian champion Borgov in Paris. When she finally did, she was too wasted to concentrate. Borgov easily got the upper hand and beat her. Beth was discouraged.
It would take some serious training with her friend Benny to get her back on track. By the time the Moscow Invitational rolled around, Beth was ready, but lacking funds. Enter Jolene. The girl Beth had known at Methuen was grown up and had control of her life. She wanted to be friends with Beth again. Since Beth needed the cash so desperately, Jolene was willing to play the part of hero and loan some money she’d been saving. Beth was now as ready as she’d ever be for Moscow and Borgov.
In Moscow, Beth was like a celebrity, but that wasn’t the only reason all eyes were on her. KGB were everywhere. She had to remain vigilant at all times. Taking down one opponent after another, it was becoming clear that this was not the girl that Vasily Borgov had defeated in Paris, but someone more focused and determined. In the end, after a very tough game, she wound up defeating Borgov as well, and possibly more importantly, earning his respect.
