Check & Mate

Check & Mate (2023) is a contemporary young adult romance by Ali Hazelwood. The novel tells the story of Mallory Greenleaf, who at eighteen has sworn off chess, the sport she and her father loved. She supports her family now that her father has died, and her mother struggles with basic tasks many days due to her chronic illness. Mallory’s inadvertent defeat of Nolan Sawyer, the reigning World Champion of professional chess, leads her back into the world of chess, where she must face the pain of her past and learn how to trust others.

This guide references the 2023 G.P. Putnam’s Sons e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material features representations of familial and financial struggles, discussions of sexuality, and trauma recovery.

Plot Summary

In New Jersey, Mallory Greenleaf works as an auto mechanic, supporting her family even though she is only eighteen years old. Despite a high level of intelligence and offers of scholarships for college, Mallory refuses to attend college and abandon her family. Instead, she worries over whether her best friend, Easton, will lose touch with her when Easton goes to college in Colorado.

Mallory was once a promising chess player, but she left the chess world after she discovered her father was having an affair and her mother divorced him. Mallory feels guilty, believing the dissolution of her family and her father’s death three years after his departure is her fault. This contributes to her desire to support her family, which consists of her mother and two sisters, but the primary reason for becoming the breadwinner is her mother’s illness. Without adequate medication, rheumatoid arthritis leaves Mrs. Greenleaf unable to accomplish many daily tasks required to support herself and Mallory.

Easton guilts Mallory into helping her by joining her team for a charity chess tournament despite Mallory’s vow never to play chess again once her father left. Mallory’s first game is against Nolan Sawyer, the revered reigning World Champion in professional chess. Mallory defeats Nolan. At his observation of her in the aftermath and the shock of the crowd around her, she flees.

Word spreads quickly, and a woman named Defne, who runs the Zugzwang chess club in New York City, finds Mallory at home. Mallory is offered a year-long chess fellowship that nurtures promising new chess players and prepares them for a career in professional chess. Mallory refuses the offer, but she is then fired from her under-the-table job as a mechanic. Without a mechanic’s license, she cannot get a job that pays well enough to continue supporting her family. At Easton’s urging, she takes the fellowship, resolving to treat it as nothing more than a temporary job while she obtains her mechanic’s license in her free time.

Mallory finds herself thinking of chess more and more outside of her “work” days, and Defne challenges Mallory to develop her theoretical knowledge of chess further rather than relying mostly on instinct. At tournaments, Mallory consistently proves her abilities and gains attention for her wins despite her lack of a professional chess ranking. Meanwhile, Mallory refuses to play chess outside of her fellowship and competitions, even when Nolan arrives at her house to beg for another game.

Mallory’s reputation continues to grow. She nearly wins one of the major tournaments, beating the novel's antagonist, Malte Koch, but “losing” the match because he calls her out on a technicality: doodling on her score sheet. Nonetheless, her ranking as second place player wins her enough money to pay off her family’s overdue bills.

Nolan’s friend Emil, another professional player, asks Mallory to join their team for the chess Olympics in Toronto, Canada, and it is widely rumored that Nolan only goes so he can be closer to Mallory. In their last evening at the Olympics, Nolan tries again to convince Mallory to play him. When she refuses, he uses a game of tic-tac-toe to ask questions for every win. His questions probe into Mallory’s past, and she responds with anger, ignoring his flirtations.

Rumors spread that the two are together, but when Mallory goes to Nolan’s home to confront him and demand they correct the rumors, she finds him ill. She makes him soup and stays with him. She is frightened when she wakes up on his couch in his arms, as she has spent years avoiding commitment. This is when she receives word from Defne that she has been chosen to compete in the high-profile Challengers tournament.

People in the chess world debate whether Mallory was chosen only because of her gender or because she is Nolan’s girlfriend, and she begins to question herself and her abilities. Defne reassures her that although Defne is sure she was chosen because she is a woman, she also believes that Mallory can win the tournament and prove all the doubters wrong. She helps open Mallory’s eyes to the depth of misogyny in the world of chess and hopes that Mallory’s success can help change things.

Since Mallory has avoided all texts from Nolan since he was sick, he provides gentle support throughout the Challengers tournament, texting her advice and leaving gifts of food by her lodgings. Emil and Tanu, Nolan’s friends and fellow players, join Defne in supporting Mallory.

Mallory nearly wins the tournament, but when facing Koch again, he plays an incredibly skilled move that shocks the crowd and wins the match. Even Nolan is frightened about his chances at the World Championship if Koch’s skill has skyrocketed. Nolan quickly asks Mallory to join his team of seconds, or players who advise and assist Grandmasters. It is an intensive job. Mallory, Emil, and Tanu live with Nolan in his upstate New York home, and he pays them and other seconds for their work with the team quite well. With her tournament winnings, the pay from the fellowship, and Nolan’s wages, Mallory pays off her family’s bills and acquires better medication for her mother.

Nolan and Mallory grow closer. They give in to their feelings, and Mallory notes how happy they both are despite her fear of vulnerability and commitment. They receive news, however, that Mallory will now be the Challengers victor because viewers discovered that Koch cheated, meaning that she will have to play Nolan. Mallory worries she should not accept it, since she feels her work with Nolan gives her an advantage, but Nolan is ecstatic to be able to play her again.

Tanu later shows them an interview with Koch where he denies the allegations and reveals that Nolan is the one who provided funding for Mallory’s fellowship. Mallory feels betrayed, believing he lied to her and pushed her to pursue chess when she didn’t want to. She and Nolan both say hurtful things, and she leaves with Defne. In the aftermath, she refuses to play in the tournament and becomes anxious and irritable. Overhearing criticisms from her family, she lashes out at them, opening up about years of suppressed pain. Her mother helps her talk through their past and Mallory’s feelings. The family all reconcile as Mrs. Greenleaf reasserts her role as loving parent, and Mallory agrees to see things through with chess and compete in the World Championship.

At the Championship in Italy, Mallory trains for several days while her family goes sightseeing. Her interview with Nolan for the press is awkward and makes her come across as cold toward him, though she still struggles to decipher what she now feels for him. Easton arrives, and they discuss their fears about growing apart. After coming to the positive conclusion that this has not happened, Easton helps Mallory see that Nolan did not actually betray her like her father betrayed the family, and she encourages Mallory to talk to him.

Unable to sleep in the middle of the night before their first game, Mallory wanders the hotel and finds Nolan by the courtyard where they will play. The two apologize and reconcile, with Mallory admitting that she wants to be with Nolan. They happily play against one another in the Championship. A newspaper article in the epilogue reveals that Mallory won, and the chess world is becoming more open and welcoming since her win.