Walter Tevis

An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match. (imdb)

Thomas Jerome Newton is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to get water for his dying planet. (imdb)

A former pool player returns to the game and takes on a young protege. (imdb)

In this reimagining of the sci-fi classic, humanoid alien John Dory's (Lewis Smith) ship crashes on Earth. When our science can't fix the craft, Dory enters the business world and rises to the top of the tech industry. His race to complete the repairs is dogged by sinister government agents, and nearly cut short altogether by his attraction to a single mother (Beverly D'Angelo). (Netflix)

Eight year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is, until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control. By the age of sixteen, she's competing for the U.S. Open championship. But as Beth hones her skills on the professional circuit, her isolation grows more frightening, and the thought of escape becomes all the more tempting. (imdb)