- The trip to Cincinnati launches Beth and her mother into a whirlwind of travel and press coverage. Beth sets her sights on the U.S. open in Las Vegas.
- Beth arrives in Cincinnati with Alma. The rules are 40 moves max in 2 hours. Beth has a reputation now and players are actually afraid when they go up against her. Matt (Matthew) and Mike (Russell Dennis Lewis), twin brothers who serve as registration officials at Beth's first tournament and go on to become her friends. Mike and Matt are at Cincinnati as part of their University team.. They encourage and guide Beth along the way. European tournaments pay better than US ones. US players don't have a prayer against Russians!! Beth wins the tournament in Cincinnati, giving Alma 15% of the prize money (she had only asked for 10%, but Beth suggested 15%). Beth continues to skip school (Alma covers for her by making excuses around her fragile health) while traveling to tournaments and quickly gains national recognition for her achievements (she is in all the national newspapers & magazines).
She also begins dressing more stylishly as her winnings increase. Vasily Borgov (Marcin Dorocinski), the current Soviet-Russian world champion chess player and Beth reads about him in the magazines.. Beth is also concerned that she is a celebrity for being a girl in a male dominated sport.. They don't talk about Shaibel, or her technique.
At school, Beth is invited to a meeting of the "Apple Pi Club" by the girls who had initially shunned her. She soon realizes she has nothing in common with them (they only talk about boys and sex) and, stealing a bottle of gin, escapes back home.
In 1966, Beth heads to Las Vegas for the U.S. Open where she is reunited with Townes, now a journalist covering the event for the Lexington newspaper. They return to his hotel room where Townes takes pictures of her. The two play chess and share a brief, intimate moment, but are interrupted by Townes's roommate, whom Beth suspects is also his boyfriend. Beth abruptly leaves before Townes can explain the situation. Alma guesses something is amiss and introduces Beth to beer and alcohol (gin). Beth reveals that Benny was a prodigy like her and is now a middle aged man. He is her toughest competitor. But she still considers Borgov to be her ultimate challenge.
Beth runs into the current U.S. national champion, Benny Watts (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) (a brash young man who is the reigning United States chess champion and one of Beth's most challenging competitors, later a mentor and friend), who points out an error in her game against Beltik. Beth is taken aback and replays her earlier game, losing her confidence. she knows Benny is right and that Beltik could have beaten her, but didn't, as he didn't have the intelligence to do so.. She experiences her first professional loss against Watts the next day (Beth needed only a draw to be champion, as Benny already had 2 draws.. But Beth wanted to show Benny that she was a true champ and hammer his weaknesses. But Benny used her strengths against her and gradually exposed her weaknesses in her own game. Beth resigns as Shaibel had taught her to) and they finish the tournament as co-champions.
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