𝑪𝒉𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆: 𝑩𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝑾𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒔 𝒙 𝑶𝑪

Winners and Losers

"Beth I need to go use the bathroom, sign yourself up,"

"Em you should sign up too, you can buy that nice set of coals and paper," the

"I'm not as good at you at chess though,"

The look on Beth's face became one Emilie couldn't refuse. "Fine sign us both up, but I'm counting on you to win.

"You know I love to win." was the last thing Emilie heard her sister say before starting to talk to the twins at the sign-up.

-

The first games they played were quite easy. Finished in less than twenty moves. They had to come back the next day for more games since neither of them had been eliminated. She had to play the reigning champion Harry Beltik first. He seemed to be a bit older than her and quite confident that he would win this game. She of course still had some self-assurance as well that he least wouldn't completely disintegrate her.

She started his clock since he was playing white. He already had an advantage. He seemed to be "going easy" on her which honestly helped but once he realized she wasn't a complete invalid at chess, he cranked the difficulty up quite a bit and she made a mistake. There was so much going on in that room, games happening all around, grown men looking like they were about to cry after losing to her fifteen-year-old sister, and Beltik kept opening his mouth which showed his super uneven and to be completely honest, awful to look at teeth. Emilie's downfall in her game against Beltik happened when she castled. She shouldn't have castled. In Hindsight it should've been easy to recover from, but once he did that it threw her off her rhythm. He mated her in about five moves. She had lost.

She didn't expect to win the whole thing, and at least she lost to the current champion in Kentucky, but she still lost like she always did, because she made a mistake.

She ended up coming in third place. Her sister came in first. One E. Harmon lost to Beltik, while the other beat him.

Em always knew Beth could beat him. Elizabeth Harmon's brain spoke the language of chess very well. Sometimes when they were still at Methuen Orphanage Em would look up from her drawings and see Beth staring at the ceiling for hours after taking the green pills. Sometimes she could swear she could see the pieces moving in the reflection of her eyes.

Beth's brain and Beth as a whole would be famous one day, winning every tournament she put her mind to, becoming the first of something to win this title or the youngest to win this or that title.

Emilie would probably end up like their adoptive mother, Mrs. Alma Wheatley. The only future she could really see for herself was one where she would end up stuck in a marriage, maybe knocked up, losing her sister to this whole new world while she is stuck in the same suburb for the rest of her life, or at least that's what her nightmares were like.