Check & Mate

3.5 stars

God, I hate the goodreads app... I wrote a long review, something glitched, and now it's gone...

So let's cut to the chase. Ali Hazelwood's writing style in this book was very addictive as usual. But I didn't like any of the characters and felt kind of betrayed by her portrayal of rheumatoid arthritis.

The whole chess part was also very unbelievable and lacked any subtlety or intrigue. It's the Hans Niemann scandal stripped of all the controversy. No, there's no way Mallory cheated. No one questions her ability. Nolan Sawyer, this books younger and hotter version of Magnus Carlsen, doesn't lose his shit and just accepts his defeat? There aren't any crazy theories online about how she could've cheated. We're just supposed to believe that an intuitive player like her who hasn't played chess in over four years beats the best player in the world without any preparation? And it's not just a lucky win but plain talent? She wins against all the other players who have dedicated their whole lives to chess since they were children? It's just too unbelievable. Moreover, it spoils all the fun. The whole Niemann/Carlsen feud was so huge because all those theories were crazy and fun enough to make us "normal" people who don't care about chess care. I doubt that anyone outside of the chess world would care about Mallory to be honest..

But then again. Who am I to judge? I must be the world's worst chess player.

2.7 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“I don't think you understand.” He holds my eyes. I think his throat moves. “I want to play chess with you, Mallory.”

Told all from Mallory's point-of-view, Check & Mate is the story of a girl who's father took advantage of her amazing chess skills, left her and her family wrecked, then a chance comes back up for Mallory to fulfill her dreams, and little bit of falling in love along the way. After getting a glimpse of Mallory following along to who Nolan “Kingkiller” Sawyer is, a young “bad boy” dominating the chess world, the story jumps two years to Mallory being eighteen and Nolan twenty. When her bestfriend Easton begs her to join her team in a charity chess tournament, Mallory ends up winning it all when she beats the number one player in the world, Nolan. Nolan seems fascinated with her but she runs out before anyone can talk to her. Mallory doesn't want to give chess another chance to ruin her life again but when a woman who runs a chess training club offers to give her a paid fellowship for a year, Mallory can't turn down the money.

There is a beautiful, indecipherable half smile on his lips. “You think I don't want you to know me?”

This story was a lot of Mallory trying to reconcile, deal with, and heal from her family drama. She's always loved chess and with a father who was a grand master, he always encouraged and pushed but her mother didn't want her in ranked tournaments until she was sixteen. Readers get that Mallory blames herself for something that broke her family up, before her dad died he had left the family, but the reason doesn't get revealed until the later second half. It's a lot of Mallory putting the world on her shoulders, her mother suffers from chronic rheumatoid arthritis so she skips going to college to work and pay for the mortgage and help take care of her younger teen sisters. There are times in the middle where it's a bit martyr syndrome but that does get addressed towards the end.

“Touch-take rule,” he murmurs. He stands, too. Every step back I take is one forward for him. “I---What?” “You touched me. Can't stop now. Touch-take rule.”

While Mallory is stressing about her family, money, and trying to not fall back into loving chess as much as she did before, the chess champ of the world Nolan is hanging around on the sides. It takes a while for these two to really share page time and even though we don't get any of his pov, it's pretty obvious to readers that Nolan likes, has feelings for Mallory. I personally find it somewhat off-putting when the female main character actually, literally fears the main male character, a little a' la The Hating Game. Nolan grew-up in the chess world and when he younger, adolescent to teens, he threw tantrums and sometimes got a bit physical when he lost or got angry, it's stressed he hasn't acted out like that in years but he still has the “bad boy” of chess moniker because of it. Since we don't get his pov, we don't truly know what he is thinking and all we have are Mallory's thoughts and she worries that he is or could get really angry with her (she does fear physically) and while you could say it's in a romantic comedy tone of “I could kill them!” thought, it didn't read it that way, to me. I “know” as the reader this isn't the type of genre to have Nolan be truly “bad” but Mallory doesn't and I therefore can't feel the tingly anticipation of romance feelings I'm supposed to, with her literally fearing him. As always though, The Hating Game was extremely popular, your mileage may vary with this kind of beginning tone.

“I hope,” I say, serious, “that you're going to like this as much as chess.” “I think,” he tells me with a small smile, “that I already do.”

There was a good amount of chess talk in this, which definitely added to the setting and as even someone who watched Netflix's The Queen's Gambit, there was some new and cool things to read about. There's some drama with Mallory and the players she goes against, delivering some suspense and the thriller aspect of delivering on an ultimate goal ending of her and Nolan meeting up to play in the World Championships (Mallory won't play him for fun). The author devotes a good amount of time to addressing sexism in the chess world, Mallory's experience, some side characters that give their own high and low stories, and then the importance of seeing yourself in spaces that do their best to keep you out.

My eyes begin to tear up, but I'm not sad. For the first time in a long, long while, I'm a million things, and sad is not any of them.

The ending has a third act breakup with Mallory feeling some betrayal and then working through her issues with herself, friends and family, and Nolan but then ends abruptly when it gets the game we all were waiting for. The epilogue then comes in with a news article that answers any and all questions. This was more about Mallory's journey to me but did have romance (with a fade to black door slam scene). If you're a chess player who also likes New Adult fiction with some romance and want to read a story about a girl who realizes that she doesn't have to carry the world on her shoulders, this is one definitely in your lane.