Review: Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is in the air and on the chessboard in Ali Hazelwood's YA debut, Check & Mate!

It's a great story full of Girl Power and the cute bad boys of the chess world. 

About the Book

In this clever and swoonworthy YA debut from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess.

Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….

As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren’t only on the board, the spotlight is brighter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce (-ly attractive. And intelligent…and infuriating…)

My Thoughts

Girl Power!!!

Love, Love, LOVE this book!

Ali Hazelwood writes intelligent, quirky heroines that are always so relatable, so fun, funny, and perfectly imperfect. And she does not disappoint with the lovely Mallory.

Even though Ms. Hazelwood wrote a YA book about chess, I was a little apprehensive to try it. Not just because of the YA genre, but a book about CHESS? Seriously??? Ms. Hazelwood changed my mind, quick, fast and in a hurry with her amazing characters, engaging storyline and fiercely competitive chess arena. I binge read the book in less than 24 hours. Ugh! It was THAT good! 

I especially loved watching Mallory–Mal–breaking through the glass ceiling of the chess world. Girl Power, indeed! This story is inspiring and a glowing example of representation, not only in the competitive realm, but in everyday life. 

Check & Mate is a wonderful story with brilliantly crafted characters, witty dialogue, intense chemistry, and profound aspects of the human condition.

Highly recommend it!

FTC Disclaimer: I voluntarily read a copy of the book generously provided by the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influences my thoughts or feelings about the book or the content of my review.

Excerpt

Prologue

“I am reliably informed that you’re a Gen Z sex symbol.”

I nearly drop my phone.

Okay: I do drop my phone, but I save it before it splashes into a beaker full of ammonia. Then I glance around the chemistry classroom, wondering if anyone else heard.

The other students are either texting or puttering around with their equipment. Mrs. Agarwal is at her desk, pretending to grade papers but probably reading Bill Nye erotic fanfiction. A hopefully-not-lethal smell of ethanoic acid wafts up from my bench, but my AirPods are still in my ears.

No one is paying attention to me or the video on my phone, so I press Play to resume it.

“It was on Time magazine two weeks ago. On the cover. A picture of your face, and then ‘A Gen Z sex symbol.’ How does that feel?”

I am expecting to see Zendaya. Harry Styles. Billie Eilish. The entirety of BTS, crammed on the couch of whatever late-night show the YouTube autoplay algorithm decided to feed me after the pH experiment tutorial ended. But it’s just some dude. A boy, even? He looks out of place in the red velvet chair, with his dark shirt, dark slacks, dark hair, dark expression. Intensely unreadable as he says in a deep, serious voice, “It feels wrong.”

“It does?” the host—Jim or James or Jimmy—asks.

“The Gen Z part is correct,” the guest says. “Not so much the sex symbol.”

The audience eats it up, clapping and hooting, and that’s when I decide to read the caption. Nolan Sawyer, it says. There’s a description explaining who he is, but I don’t need it. I might not recognize the face, but I can’t remember a moment in my life when I didn’t know the name.

Meet the Kingkiller: The No. 1 chess player in the world.

“Let me tell you something, Nolan: smart is the new sexy.”

“Still not sure I qualify.” His tone is so dry, it has me wondering how his publicist talked him into this interview. But the audience laughs, and the host does, too. He leans forward, obviously charmed by this young man who’s built like an athlete, thinks like a theoretical physicist, and has the net worth of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. An unusual, handsome prodigy who won’t admit to being special.

I wonder if Jim-Jimmy-James has heard what I’ve heard. The gossip. The whispered stories. The dark rumors about the golden boy of chess.

“Let’s just agree that chess is the new sexy. And you’re the one who made it so—there has been a chess renaissance since you started playing. Someone was running commentaries of your games, and they went viral on TikTok—ChessTok, my writers tell me it’s called—and now more people than ever are learning how to play. But first things first: you are a Grandmaster, which is the highest title a chess player can achieve, and just won your second World Champion‑ ship, against”—the host has to look down at his card, because normal Grandmasters are not as famous as Sawyer—“Andreas Antonov. Congratulations.”

Sawyer nods, once.

“And you just turned eighteen. When, again?”

“Three days ago.” Three days ago, I turned sixteen.

Ten years and three days ago, I received my first chess set— plastic pieces, pink and purple—and cried with joy. I’d use it all day long, carry it everywhere with me, then snuggle it in my sleep.

Now I can’t even remember the feel of a pawn in my hand.

“You started playing very young. Did your parents teach you?”

“My grandfather,” Sawyer says. The host looks taken aback, like he didn’t think Sawyer would go there, but recovers quickly.

“When did you realize that you were good enough to be a pro?”

“Am I good enough?”

More audience laughter. I roll my eyes. “Did you know you wanted to be a pro chess player from the start?”

“Yes. I knew all along that there was nothing that I liked as much as winning a chess match.”

The host’s eyebrow lifts. “Nothing?”

Sawyer doesn’t hesitate. “Nothing.”

“And—”

“Mallory?” A hand settles on my shoulder. I jump and tear out one pod. “Did you need any help?”

“Nope!” I smile at Mrs. Agarwal, sliding the phone into my back pocket. “Just finished the instruction video.”

“Oh, perfect. Make sure you put on gloves before you add the acidic solution.”

“I will.”

The rest of the class is almost done with the experiment. I furrow my brow, hurry to catch up, and a few minutes later, when I can’t find my funnel and spill my baking soda, I stop thinking about Sawyer, or about the way his voice sounded when he said that he never wanted anything as much as chess. And I don’t think of him again for a little over two years. That is, until the day we play for the first time.

And I wipe the floor with him.

Excerpted from Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood. Copyright © 2023 by Ali Hazelwood. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

About the Author

Photo: © Justin Murphy Out of the Attic Photography

Ali Hazelwood is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis, as well as a writer of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the US to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her three feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband). Visit Ali's website to learn more: alihazelwood.com