Trama

A visit from an old friend forces Beth to reckon with her past and rethink her priorities, just in time for the biggest match of her life.

Beth remembers how her mom visited her dad at his new house, where he has a family. Her dad throws her out and tells her to leave with Beth.

Jolene informs Beth that Mr Shaibel died. Jolene eventually went to college and now works as a paralegal. Jolene sees that Beth is still hooked up to the tranquilizer pills. She is saving up for law school now. Jolene explains that she is the Diversity and Inclusion hire at her firm and her partner even gifted her a car to drive. Instead of a black, cleaning woman, they wanted a clean black woman, with a good vocab and a nice ass. Jolene and Beth attend Mr. Shaibel's funeral. Afterwards, Beth revisits the orphanage and breaks down when she discovers Shaibel had followed her career up until his death (he has a wall full of her achievements, that he kept from the magazines and the newspapers. She even finds a pic of her and Shaibel together, back when she was a little girl). Helene had broken her hip and now uses a cane. Jolene helps her quit drinking with a physical fitness regime.

Beth rejects funding from the Christian Crusade to travel to the Moscow Invitational. The organization wanted to speak publicly against the spread of communism and atheism (they had a statement prepared for her, which she finds as utter non-sense). She asks Benny to help fund her (she has $2000 in her account and needs at least $1000 more), who refuses (he says he has no money.. He also says he wont accompany her to Soviet Russia and tells her not to call him anymore). The federation (as they feel Beth hasn't done as much to promote chess as she could have) and the state department (takes more time and approvals to hand over govt funds to individuals) also refuse to fund her. Jolene loans her the money ($3000), and Beth arrives at the Moscow Invitational in 1968. Mr. Booth (John Schwab) is Beth's minder from the State Department. Booth warns Beth that the Russians might approach her to defect.

Beth wins several games (at the outset, she is not considered an important player by their standards), gaining many fans from the Russian public. Slowly, her stature grows in Russia (throngs of her fans grow, specifically females, who see her as a role model). Some of her opponents take their loss gracefully, others are disgusted to lose to a woman and don't even shake her hand while resigning. She beats Luchenko (Marcus Loges), a veteran former world chess champion and Beth's penultimate opponent in Moscow (she had seen Luchenko practice his strategy with Borgov the night before). Luchenko resigns with relief.

In the final game against Borgov, Beth plays the Queen's Gambit; the game is adjourned after forty moves. Beth reconnects with Townes, who is covering the tournament for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Beth receives a phone call from Benny (from NYC), who has assembled Harry, Matt, Mike, Wexler, and Levertov to analyze her game with Borgov. When play resumes that evening, Beth is able to visualize the game without tranquilizer pills and eventually beats Borgov following her refusal of a draw offer.

Beth is celebrated widely by the locals gathered outside the venue. On the drive back to the airport, Beth exits the car and heads for a park where local men play chess. They recognize her and greet her warmly, inviting her to play.