Elizabeth Harmon

November 2, 1948

Elizabeth Harmon was born to Alice and Paul Harmon

1953

Her father officially gave up on trying to see her since Alice had kept "running away". Beth realizes that her mother had taken the same vitamins, Librium

July 25th, 1957

Beth is sent to Methuen Home, an exclusively-female Christian orphanage, after her mother died in a traffic collision.

She meets Jolene and became close friends through mutual admiration and understanding of each other.

1957

Beth began learning chess after noticing orphanage's custodian, Mr. Shaibel, playing alone, whereby she became fascinated with the checkered pattern of the eight-by-eight grid.

Mr. Shaibel later on brings Mr. Ganz, the head of two local chess clubs, into the basement to face-off against Beth. After she defeats both of them after several games, even simultaneously, Mr. Ganz photographs Beth next to Mr. Shaibel to show her off to the local chess club.

Beth is invited by Mr. Ganz to play against the local chess team and bests the 12 players in a little over 80 minutes

Exchanges

Beth is adopted by the Wheatley family. Ms. Deardorff claims Beth is 13, and Beth tries to interject to say she is 15.

Kentucky State Championship (1963)

Beth plays her first tournament and garners local fame. Mrs. Wheatley claims she doesn't have sufficient funds to last them through October which clues in Beth to ask for a job to obtain chess money, and when Alma refuses, Beth writes to Shaibel promising she'll pay him $10 if he gives her $5 to enter the tournament.

Cincinnati Tournament (1963)

Beth discovered this tournament through Mrs. Wheatley, who initially took a solely monetary interest in chess, yet she grew fond of the art after watching Beth's games in this tournament. It was held at the then-Gibson Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Beth is shown to win against National Master Rudolph as the last game in the tournament.

Beth walks away with a $327.70 profit, including $49.54 she pays her mother as an agent's commission.

Pittsburgh Tournament (1963)

Played in 1963. According to a Chess Review magazine that Mrs. Wheatley reads on a plane, Beth wins against an unnamed Grandmaster in this tournament:

Schoolgirl beats Grandmaster in Pittsburgh. Onlookers were amazed at her youthful fine-points of strategy. She shows the assurance of a player twice her age.

Mrs. Wheatley promptly boasts that this counts as national recognition, to Beth's satisfaction.

Houston Tournament (1963)

Played in December, starting on the twenty-sixth. Beth and Mrs. Wheatley discuss this tournament on a plane, musing over the convenience of travelling during the holidays.

In a Chess Review magazine, Beth is referred to as a "wunderkind", meaning "wonder child" or child prodigy in German. Whether this is remark from a German person (and thus international recognition) is undisclosed.

Beth also determines that she should learn Russian during this trip.

Las Vegas U.S. Open Chess Championship (1966)

Beth is shown to play three games, though it can be assumed she played at least one more off-screen.

Beth refused to shake Benny's hands prior to their final game. She lost against the Caro-Kann Defence, a noteworthy callback to their disagreement on its strength in 1963.

The tournament was point-based; each win was one point, while each draw was a half-point. A loss meant no points. Benny won all of his games except two draws, whereas Beth won every game except one loss. This resulted in a tie. According to a newspaper article on Mr. Shaibel's wall, this was her first loss on record.

Middle Game

Beth's Russian language classmates invite her to a party, resulting in some excessive substance usage and Beth exploring sex. She seems satisfied with her freedom, yet she is dissatisfied with her relationships once more.

Beth graduates from Fairfield High School and receives a Bulova watch from her mother.

Mexico City Invitational Chess Tournament (1966)

Played in 1966, sometime in June (based on when Beth graduated two weeks prior). During the commentary of her games, Beth is said be to be seventeen years old. It was held at the Aztec Palace.

Beth plays against at least two international Grandmasters; GM Octavio Marenco, of Italy, and GM Vasily Borgov, of Russia. If Diedrich is also a Grandmaster from Austria, or if Georgi Girev is a Grandmaster of Russia, then this tournament may qualify as one of FIDE's International Master or Grandmaster norms. This may be evidence to Beth being a Grandmaster herself.

The tournament appeared to be single-elimination; any player who loses is immediately eliminated from winning first prize. Beth most likely won a prize for second place, yet what this is monetarily is unclear.

Beth plays the Rossolimo against GM Borgov, attempting to throw them both out of book. Inevitably unprepared and psyched out from intimdation, she loses the game and the tournament.

June 1966

After the tournament, Beth loses her adoptive mother to unknown causes, and she returns home to Lexington, Kentucky, to grieve and to organize her finances.

Harry Beltik helps Beth cope with grief through attempting to teach her chess. They develop an intimate relationship, but they part ways inevitably, due to Harry seeking his own purpose and Beth's self-destructive, sharp-minded habits.

Ohio U.S. Championship (1967)

It was held in an unnamed, "second-rate" university in Ohio.

Benny and Beth connected well after the tournament, notwithstanding the fact that Beth bested Benny for the title of sole U.S. Champion. Benny determines to coach Beth in preparation for her international career.

The U.S. Championship winner was invited to the Moscow Invitational as a secondary prize.

Paris Remy-Vallon Invitational (1967)

The tournament was a single-round robin event; each player plays every other player once. With six players, there are five rounds over the course of one round per day, plus an additional one day for any adjournment.

Beth had a perfect winning score until her loss with GM Borgov, the results of which may have been influenced by her inebriation the night prior. Neither of them had any draws.

Adjournment

She gradually spirals: first by cutting her friends off, then by impulse spending, and finally by collapsing into her drug and alcohol addictions.

Kentucky State Championship (1967)

It was held at Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky.

Beth fled the tournament before it started, forfeiting the title of Kentucky State Champion.

End Game

Jolene appears on Beth's doorstep to attend Mr. Shaibel's funeral. Both talk about their lives and future through adult lenses. Jolene finances Beth's trip to Moscow out of her own pocket.

Moscow Invitational (1968)

Beth's performance throughout the tournament garnered her even greater international fame. Her skill was continuously compared to that of the chess-superpower of the Soviets.

In her final game, Beth plays the Queen's Gambit—a queen's pawn opening, which she normally does not attempt, and the namesake of the Netflix series. Borgov declines with the Albin Countergambit, contradicting his solid style as well. Beth replies with a complete deviation from Albin theory at the time by pushing her king's pawn, which transpoes them into the Queen's Gambit Accepted: Central Variation, McDonnell Defence.

Shortly following a repeat of moves, World Champion Borgov uncharacteristically offers Beth a draw, which she declines. Beth pushes for the win until the very end, therein Borgov is forced to resign after she queens her king's pawn.

She leaves to play chess in a public park.