4 ms·

Interesting - I thought it was about a damaged woman who had a period of sobriety and was able to win a championship. I suppose it depends on what we imagine h

• the_af 6y ago
  I wondered this as well. Once she was at the top of her game, what would the rest of her life look like? She could have some rematches with Borgov and other Russian champions, presumably winning most of them and maybe losing a few. And after that? Teach? Go back to drugs? Wait until a new child prodigy can challenge her?
  • nineplay 6y ago
    She wasn't happy playing that talented Soviet kid. He isn't going away and neither is the rest of the Soviet team. It's pointed out earlier that the Soviet Union pays its players, while she is going to have to scrape by on tournament winnings and Christian charity offers with strings attached. There's no way she's recovered from her addictions, she bought sedatives while in the USSR and only just managed to keep herself from taking them. She has a cold, off-putting personality which is probably going to loose it's luster once her novelty has warn off. Her mother probably suffered from mental illness and there seems to be a reasonable chance she inherited it. There's a discussion that happens midway though the series about all the Chess grandmasters who lost their minds, which feels prophetic.