1. Openings

Elizabeth Harmon is orphaned at age nine when her mother dies in a car crash on New Circle Road in Lexington, Kentucky. She is taken to Methuen Home for Girls, where the children are given tranquilizing pills to make them more compliant. While dusting erasers in the basement, Beth discovers the custodian, Mr. Shaibel, studying chess on his own. After repeated requests and demonstrating that she has already learned how the pieces move by observing him, he reluctantly agrees to teach her the game. She improves quickly, thanks to her spatial intelligence and tranquilizer abuse, which allow her to focus and visualize chess games on the ceiling above her bed.

When she is able to beat him regularly, Shaibel introduces Beth to the local high school chess club teacher, Mr. Ganz, whom she also beats. Ganz invites her to play a simultaneous exhibition against his entire club. After the state passes a law outlawing the use of tranquilizers on children, Beth begins to suffer from withdrawal. Given tranquilizer pills by her friend Jolene, Beth beats Ganz's entire class easily. Still suffering from withdrawal, she is caught stealing a jar of the tranquilizers and passes out after swallowing several mouthfuls of pills.