Hardcover. 8vo. Published by Random House, New York. 1983. 243 pgs. First

Hardcover. 8vo. Published by Random House, New York. 1983. 243 pgs. First Edition/First Printing. DJ has shelf-wear present to the DJ extremities (spine ends have closed tears present). Bound in cloth boards with titles present to the spine and front board. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. Pastedowns lightly soiled. No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. When eight-year-old Beth Harmon's parents are killed in an automobile accident, she's placed in an orphanage in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. Plain and shy, Beth learns to play chess from the janitor in the basement and discovers she is a prodigy. Though penniless, she is desperate to learn more—and steals a chess magazine and enough money to enter a tournament. Beth also steals some of her foster mother's tranquilizers to which she is becoming addicted. At thirteen, Beth wins the chess tournament. By the age of sixteen she is competing in the US Open Championship and, like Fast Eddie in The Hustler, she hates to lose. By eighteen she is the US champion—and Russia awaits...E-290; 9.3 X 6.2 X 1.2 inches; 243 pages.