Harry Beltik MBTI Personality Type
Personality
What personality type is Harry Beltik? Harry Beltik is an ISFJ personality type in MBTI, 5w6 - sp/sx - 592 in Enneagram, RLOAI in Big 5, LII in Socionics.
I had no idea what his type was on the first watch, but on rewatch the ISFJ arguments sure make sense (as awkward as his Fe is). Beth : "I'm not the one who's supposed to be in college, not working in a supermarket." Beltik : "I'm doing both. You know what? Yeah, I like working there. It's a good job and the people are nice." "His style of playing is Si" is not a good enough argument though. INTPs are Si users too, just not high ones, and when learning to play a game competitively will learn the basics by looking at what the "right" way of playing the game is. And they'll do so by studying books and looking at how better players play. Only when they're confident enough that they've gathered enough information and/or gained enough experience will they then find their own playstyle, which will often be a creative one (Ne). Using Ne in a competitive game before being ready is the same as trying to get creative before mastering the basics. It's less efficient, so upon learning a game seriously you could say INTPs have to temporarily shelf their Ne and put themselves in a bit of a Ti-Si loop. And Chess being an extremely difficult game that heavily relies on memorization, that process can take almost forever which could explain why INTPs who haven't become Grandmasters yet are still in that phase. You also see Beth doing the INTJ equivalent of that by favoring Te over Ni upon learning the game (she memorizes hundreds of different lines in her book at first, and only becomes an "intuitive" player once she's studied enough). That being said the college/supermarket thing by a Chess player who's close to Grandmaster level just isn't INTP at all. An INTP forcing himself to use Si for so long only to give up close to the finish line and have to take on a Si job sure wouldn't be happy about it. Beltik, on the other hand, is relieved by it, and even enjoys the Fe part of the job. Forget INTP, it just doesn't fit anymore, you'll never see a young INTP flourishing in a Si-Fe environment right after giving up on a game that showed some promise of being able to use Ne in a not-so-distant future (especially not one he spent almost his life on). He'd be depressed, not relieved. The supermarket scene and ISFJs argument convinced me, I believe he's mistyped.
Biography
A traditional learner, Harry Beltik is one of Beth Harmon's first high-level opponents. After her first major defeat, he offers help with studying when she sets her sights on defeating Vasily Borgov. However, their differing approaches to chess fundamentally challenge their connection and communication.
