Lisa Lane, Chess Champion Said to Have Inspired ‘The Queen’s Gambit,’ Dies at 90

Lisa Lane, the former U.S. Women’s Chess Champion believed to have inspired the 1983 novel (and Netflix series) The Queen’s Gambit, has died. She was 90.

According to her Legacy.com obituary, Lane, who was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2023, passed away on February 28, 2024, at her home in Carmel, New York, after a battle with cancer.

Born on April 25, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lane didn’t discover chess until college; she attended Temple University. She quickly learned and soon mastered the game, winning the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship in 1959 and holding the title until 1962.

During her title reign, Lane appeared as a contestant on a 1960 episode of the television show To Tell the Truth, where the four panel members had to correctly guess her identity. In 1961, she was a contestant on What’s My Line?, another game where the panel had to guess the guest’s identity. This time, Lane stumped the panel of Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, and Abe Burrows.

“Well, we were very snobbish,” Burrows said in the episode. “Because she’s so pretty, we ruled out anything intellectual.”

Lisa Lane on What’s My Line?; YouTube

In August 1961, she became the first chess player to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a full 11 years before chess legend Bobby Fischer accomplished the same feat.

According to her obituary, Lane was often told she played chess “like a man,” aggressive and ruthless. Many people, especially the press, were surprised by Lane’s youthful beauty, believing chess was “an old man’s game.”

After regaining her championship in 1966, Lane began to get frustrated with the disparity between chess tournaments for men and women. At the time, the men’s title came with a prize of $6,000, while the women received just $600. Lane tried to encourage other players to picket the women’s championship tournament in protest, but she didn’t receive much support.

“I just couldn’t put the title of women’s chess champion on the line every time I sat down to play,” she told Sports Illustrated in 2018, referring to her frustrations with being challenged by men. She left the world of competitive chess in 1967.

The Queen’s Gambit (Credit: PHIL BRAY/NETFLIX)

While The Queen’s Gambit author Walter Tevis said he didn’t base his lead character, Beth Harmon, on any specific chess personality, many have drawn comparisons between Harmon and Lane. Both were fiercely competitive, fiery, driven, and unafraid to challenge men and the establishment. Harmon was also portrayed as an orphan, while Lane’s father left when she was a toddler.

The Queen’s Gambit was adapted into a coming-of-age period drama for Netflix in 2020, with Anya Taylor-Joy portraying chess prodigy Beth Harmon.

Speaking about the press attention she received at the height of her career, Lane told SI, “It didn’t bother me. It wasn’t like they said I was beautiful and not a good chess player… I wasn’t a deep thinker about anything but chess in those days. I didn’t really think about the connection between my looks and my chess, except that it got attention.”