Both of Beth Harmon's dads in The Queen's Gambit is made all the more significant by the various obstacles she faced, which includes her abandonment issues that stem from her troubled childhood.
The Queen's Gambit is a coming of age story centered on chess prodigy and orphan Beth Harmon. The Netflix miniseries is an adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel of the same name, and both are set during the Cold War, when professional chess was at its most popular in America. Beth, who becomes an orphan when her biological mother Alice Harmon commits suicide, is introduced to the game by the orphanage's custodian, Mr. Shaibel. She quickly shows a great aptitude for chess, and as a teenager, enters the competitive circuit as a way to earn money.
Mr. Shaibel, in his own way, becomes the closest thing Beth has to a father figure — even though she never really sees him again after she leaves the orphanage to live with her adoptive parents, Alma and Allston Wheatley. It's only retrospectively that viewers can appreciate the full extent of Shaibel's influence on Beth's emotional development, as his attitude towards Beth is sharply contrasted by that of her biological father and Mr. Wheatley. The Queen's Gambit finale shows that Shaibel offered Beth the kind of fatherly unconditional love that she never received from her terrible dads, who both abandoned her out of their own selfishness, cowardice, and weakness.
The Queen's Gambit: Why Beth's Biological Father Failed
The Beth's biological father, Paul, is now living a comfortable life with his new wife and child. To him, too much time has ed; he rebukes Alice for bringing Beth there, ignores the obvious warning signs implicit by her desperate pleas for help, and sends her on her way.
While in some ways, this mysterious man may feel that he had no other choice — Alice clearly had a child with him and then fled to live in isolation in a trailer, for reasons unknown — the fact remains that he had a biological child he knew existed but did not do enough to ensure her health, safety, and security. What's worse, Alice discovering that he had started a new family, and his replied refusal to take Beth in (despite obviously being financially secure), is what tips her over the edge, as the subsequent event is her attempting a murder suicide by crashing her car with Beth inside. This sequence of events is responsible for the young woman's severe lack of self-worth, which is directly tied to Beth's substance abuse issues and self-destructive behavior. He never goes looking for her — even after Beth becomes a celebrity — suggesting a complete inability or willingness to acknowledge that she is his offspring. Paul is a terrible father because he gave up on Beth, allowing his frustration with Alice to overpower his morality, and thus failed to love his child unconditionally.
The Queen's Gambit: Beth's Adoptive Father Was A Miserable, Pathetic Coward
Beth's next father was Allston Wheatley, who adopted her as a teenager; however, as he would later make clear to her after Alma died — Beth had to). As Beth herself points out, Allston is a pathetic, miserable coward.
Beth sees Alma's failed marriage as a lesson not to love others, but instead of focusing on how Allston caused Alma to decline, Beth should have seen how her relationship with Alma helped her recover. Because of both her biological father and Allston Wheatley rejecting responsibility for her, Beth falls back on a lesson her mother had taught her as a child: learn to accept being alone. However, the primary lesson in The Queen's Gambit is the opposite, which is why isolation causes Beth to spiral into her addiction — just as Alice's isolation likely contributed to her mental health struggles and suicide, and Alma's isolation led to alcoholism and ill health. By the end of the miniseries, Beth learns that she needs others in order to succeed. It's only when she lets down her guard and welcomes people into her life that she is able to overcome her demons. When Beth wins the championship in the final moments of The Queen's Gambit, her entire community celebrates, sharing in the victory.
Mr. Shaibel's Role In The Queen's Gambit Finale
Mr. Shaibel is Beth's true father figure, and he is the only positive male role model she has as a child. He coaches her at the beginning, teaching her not only the rules of chess, but also the expected etiquette. When she wins against the high school team, he buys her chocolates and watches her eat them fondly as she describes the matches. Although it's not clear if Beth realizes it in the moment, the viewers can see how proud Shaibel is of her. As a teenager, she writes him a letter asking if she could borrow some money from him to cover the cost of her entrance fee for a local chess tournament. He sends it to her and she wins, which launches her career as a competitive chess player. Although she thinks of him during key moments on her journey in the sport, it's unknown if he still thinks of her — until The Queen's Gambit finale.
In a highly emotional scene, Beth visits the basement where the late Mr. Shaibel taught her to play chess as a child, and she discovers a bulletin board covered in newspaper clippings detailing her chess career. This moment is significant for two main reasons: one, because it offers her the sort of validation that she has craved her entire life, and two, because it models for her unconditional love, which helps Beth realize the value of relationships. Beth didn't keep in touch with Shaibel — the only letter she wrote him is on the board, along with the newspaper clippings — yet he never stopped caring about her (the same can be said about Jolene, who — unlike the various male chess players who try — is the only person able to trully help Beth). Beth takes the photo of Mr. Shaibel with her as a reminder of him and is overwhelmed with emotion, signifying her opening herself up to others.
Beth's two fathers in The Queen's Gambit are terrible parents. They fail in their basic duties as a father because they are both completely ill-equipped to take care of and love their child. As The Queen Gambit shows, this is their shortcoming rather than a reflection on Beth. The miniseries demonstrates the devastating impact of bad parenting, as Beth's two dads teach her a number of bad lessons regarding relationships and self-worth; however, thanks to the unwavering of her true family, Beth emerges victorious by the show's end.