His daughter, Julia McGory, 63, mentioned that his children had skilled a few of “the unhappiness and complexities of our father,” however “by no means doubted how a lot he liked us and loved being with us.”
Within the mid-Seventies, Tevis sobered up, partly with assist from Alcoholics Nameless. Deeply annoyed by his author’s block, he received a divorce and determined to attempt his inventive luck in Manhattan. He started a relationship with, and ultimately married, Eleanora Walker, who labored for his agent. He reconnected with Mr. Knight: “We grew to become nice buddies once more,” Mr. Knight mentioned.
Tevis additionally regained his writerly mojo, ending 4 extra novels and a set of brief tales. He helped persuade Paul Newman to star within the film model of “The Coloration of Cash.” He additionally wrote “The Queen’s Gambit” throughout these years. The author Tobias Wolff referred to as it an “missed masterpiece.”
“Tevis has a present for vivid characterization and propulsive narratives,” Mr. Wolff mentioned in an e-mail. “His fashion is direct and environment friendly, by no means calling consideration to itself; but it grows in energy by way of the course of a novel by its very naturalness.”
Describing younger Beth studying a chess transfer in “The Queen’s Gambit,” Tevis wrote: “She determined to not take the supplied pawn, to go away the strain on the board. She appreciated it like that. She appreciated the ability of the items, exerted alongside recordsdata and diagonals. In the course of the sport, when the items have been in every single place, the forces crisscrossing the board thrilled her. She introduced out her king’s knight, feeling its energy unfold.”
Extra lyrically, as Beth sits bored at school, Tevis wrote that her “thoughts danced in awe to the geometric rococo of chess, rapt, enraptured, drawing within the grand permutations as they opened to her soul, and her soul opened to them.”
Within the guide, Beth is a harder-edged, much less clearly triumphant character than within the Netflix collection. Tevis as soon as defined why he made the selection to painting a feminine chess champion. “Typically I used to be actually extra wrapped up within the concept of intelligence in ladies, for which I’ve an unlimited respect and a form of awe, extra wrapped up in that even than the sport of chess itself,” he mentioned.