(This letter is addressed to Beth Harmon, the protagonist of 'The Queen's Gambit' written by
Walter Tevis. In this letter, I assume our lives belong to the same time.)
Hi Beth,
How are you? I can imagine how busy you are these days, you're on paper every single day! Though, if you are still finding time to read this out, know that I cannot be any happier than I am now. I know it's weird to get informal letters from strangers but consider me as one of your childhood friends from your Methuen Home. I know you dislike the orphanage but you cannot dislike the girls, never.
Besides, informals are fun!
Well, yesterday I was playing chess with my cousin and I took him down with the two-move checkmate very easily. Do you know what he said afterwards? "You're just lucky. I beat all my friends."
"Then your friends are all idiots," is how I replied.
But it didn't end there. He said, "What are you so proud of? All the best chess players in the world are men. You're just lucky, like Harmon."
I never knew chess was a game of luck, I thought it was a game of brains. Well, I know he's ignorant and arrogant, yet, I am happy that he compared me to you though he did it thinking all girls are girls. And what if it wasn't for you? He wouldn't have even agreed that I won.
Nowadays I truly get how you felt when Benny and Harry offered you their help or when you were interviewed because you were a 'girl' prodigy in chess. I have no words to express how I felt when you beat Benny and his friends in speed chess, all at a time, again and again and again. It was crazy!!! And that day, when you were just a kid, you were beating all those high school chess club boys...all of them, moving from one to the other, your only practice was done at night then, when you played chess in your head with whatever little things Shaibel taught you. You beat all the chess players in your country...you were everywhere...the 'girl' who plays chess. They should have called you America's best chess player. Some of my neighbours even thought you were cheating..in chess, of course, yes, very likely to happen, duh! And what did the girls ask you? Were you dating any of those chess boys?? Well, you shouldn't complain; nowadays I go to learn how to drive cars...and what does my aunt bother to ask me? "With how many boys do you have to sit in the car with?" It's two, most days, but I said, "They don't come to learn at all. They just know it." The boys!! And here comes the best part...she believed it!
My sole purpose of writing this letter was to let you know about my existence..how my life is so similar to yours just because we're girls. And there's one sentence I haven't written yet... it's not to write but to let you know that it's because of you that I started learning chess, and driving cars, and questioning myself, (there's no use questioning my cousins or aunts!) I don't want to be the only girl or the best girl...I want to be what you're now- the best chess player in the world- the Best (Oh, how you did beat Borgov in Russia, setting a world record, one of the greatest indeed!). You have no idea how you are inspiring girls like me who have to live in a world where it's hard even to believe in yourself! But you did and I hope many will.
With lots of love and respect,
Your little fanatic
Swathi Krishna
Daulat Ram College
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