A series of digital mosaic portraits featuring Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) from Netflix's The Queen's Gambit, built from chess symbols and created as a personal tribute to the book, series, and game.
It's an entire world of just 64 squares.
— Beth Harmon
I started this project during those strange months of 2020, wanting to explore how chess pieces could work as building blocks for portraits. Walter Tevis's novel and the Netflix adaptation gave me a perfect subject, Beth Harmon's intense, focused expressions seemed to naturally connect with the strategic thinking that chess represents.
Working with chess symbols as my basic elements, I found myself thinking about how each piece—pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queens, and kings, could function both as recognizable symbols and as abstract shapes contributing to light, shadow, and form. The challenge was making them work together to capture something essential about Beth's character and the psychological weight of her story.
These portraits reveal themselves gradually. From a distance, you see Beth's face, her concentration, her determination. Move closer, and the individual chess pieces emerge, each one playing its part in a larger visual strategy. Like her journey from orphaned child to chess master, the meaning builds through layers of understanding.
The Artworks
The Psychology of Chess and Visual Perception
Strategic Fragmentation: The Chessboard as Metaphor
The chessboard's 64 squares make sense as a foundation for mosaic work, each square holds possibility, but meaning comes from how pieces relate to their neighbors. In these portraits, I let chess symbols move beyond rigid grid placement, giving them space to breathe and create visual rhythms. Like planning several moves ahead in chess, I try to consider not just how each symbol looks in its spot, but how it contributes to the whole face emerging from the pieces.
It's mostly about my being a girl.
— Beth Harmon
Εὐφυΐα (intelligence) is a feminine word.
You can download the high resolution file here.
— Beth Harmon
Εὐφυΐα (intelligence) is a feminine word.
You can download the high resolution file here.
Rhythm and Recognition: Working with Fragmentation
Our brains are constantly trying to make sense of fragmented visual information, looking for familiar patterns in complex images. I use this tendency by creating deliberate breaks in visual flow, pauses that make the eye stop and work to reconstruct Beth's features from chess notation. This visual tension feels similar to the pressure of competitive chess, where quick decisions emerge from deep, careful thinking.
Chess isn't always competitive. Chess can also be beautiful.
— Beth Harmon
You can download the high resolution file here.
— Beth Harmon
You can download the high resolution file here.
Positive and Negative Space: The Empty Squares Matter
Chess teaches you that empty squares are as important as occupied ones, the potential for movement shapes the game's psychology. I try to apply this thinking to these mosaics, using the spaces between chess symbols to give the composition room to breathe. The empty areas don't weaken the image; they're what make it readable, allowing Beth's expressions to emerge from the strategic placement of chess pieces.
"Creativity and psychosis often go hand in hand. Or, for that matter, genius and madness."
— Jean Blake
You can download the high resolution file here.
— Jean Blake
You can download the high resolution file here.
Variable Sizes: Creating Visual Hierarchy
Not all chess pieces carry the same weight in a game, and not all elements in a mosaic should demand equal attention. By varying symbol sizes throughout each portrait, I can guide where the eye travels first. Larger pieces anchor important features, Beth's focused eyes, the subtle tension in her expression, while smaller symbols provide texture and depth, like supporting players in the background of a chess tournament.
"You think I'm a prima donna, don't you?"
— Beth Harmon
You can download the high resolution file here.
— Beth Harmon
You can download the high resolution file here.
Balancing Mathematics and Intuition
Creating these portraits meant developing processes that could balance systematic construction with emotional authenticity. Each chess symbol's placement considers multiple factors: how it contributes to light and shadow, what it means symbolically, how it affects visual rhythm, and how our eyes process the information. The goal is digital art that feels both carefully constructed and naturally expressive—similar to how Beth approaches chess, combining rigorous study with intuitive understanding.
"The strongest person is the person who isn't scared to be alone."
- Alice Harmon
Sad testimonial or wise advise?
You can download the high resolution file here.
- Alice Harmon
Sad testimonial or wise advise?
You can download the high resolution file here.
Free Downloads for Chess and Art Enthusiasts
I've made all the high-resolution files available as free downloads for personal use through my "The Queen's Gambit Mosaics" collection on Flickr. Whether you want to decorate a chess club, use them for educational purposes, or simply appreciate the connection between strategic thinking and visual art, feel free to download and enjoy them. Please don't use them in anything commercial.
This series came out of that strange year of 2020—when all of us were playing an unprecedented game against uncertainty, isolation, and an invisible opponent. Like Beth's story, those challenging times showed us both our limitations and our ability to adapt and find new strategies for moving forward.
I hope you enjoy exploring these visual connections. Let's play!
Some details:
About My Work
I work with digital mosaic techniques, combining traditional ideas about tessellation with contemporary tools and processes. My interest lies in how we perceive fragmented images and how breaking something apart can sometimes reveal new meanings. Each project explores different aspects of visual psychology through the interplay of fragmentation and recognition.
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