June 2024 - Check & Mate Informal Buddy Read

[Lea]

Please join Lindsey, Alissa and me as we read Check & Mate in June. I'm super nervous about this book because I want to like it so bad. I used to play chess in high school. I love Hazelwood books. So the bar is set pretty high. I hope it lives up to expectations!

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...)

[Lindsey]

I thought good way ro kick off this buddy read is with pie!!

pieladybooks - ✨Check & Mate Pie✨
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Read When You’re Craving: A witty, empowering, and swoony YA (characters ages are 18-20), about a girl named Mallory taking on the male-dominated world of chess. So hilarious, captivating, and full of incredible characters!♟️

Check & Mate
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Pairs Perfectly With: A Strawberry Peach Pie.🥧
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“Galaxies pass through his black eyes, and I wonder whether this second could last a century. Whether the universe could be just me and him, understanding each other on a forever loop.”
~Ali Hazelwood, Check & Mate♟️
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I absolutely LOVED this book! I’ve been wanting to read it for a while now, but was hesitant because I know nothing about chess (gluten sensitivity, however, I’m very well-versed in😉). But I shouldn’t have worried because Ali Hazelwood never fails to bring the wit and magic, and I was instantly hooked!♟️
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I loved Mallory and her hilarious sisters, I loved watching her reluctantly dominate in the male-dominated world of chess, but most of all, I loved the relationship between Mallory and Nolan.♟️
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Since this is Ali Hazelwood’s YA debut, it is less steamy than her other books but trust me when I say, the swoon is there in full force! I literally grinned my way through the whole book…it was such a fun reading experience!♟️
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I also absolutely loved @karissavacker ‘s audiobook narration, she does an incredible job! (And a huge thank you to @prhaudio for the gifted audiobook!)♟️
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So, if you’re looking for a coming-of-age YA full of swoon and wit and heart, I highly recommend reading Check & Mate by @alihazelwood as soon as possible!♟️
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@putnambooks @bookofthemonth #alihazelwood #checkandmate #bookofthemonth #pieladybooks #pieart #mustread

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3oUtUvL2...

[Lea]

When do we all want to start this one?

[Lea]

A strawberry peach pie sounds amazing. I will have to hunt down that exact combination!!!

[Lindsey]

Lea wrote: "When do we all want to start this one?"

I'm open to anytime that works with y'all

[Lindsey]

I want to just punch Bob in the face. Any guesses on wht Mallory stopped playing chess?

[Lea]

Lindsey wrote: "I want to just punch Bob in the face. Any guesses on wht Mallory stopped playing chess?"

Bob is such a horrible person, someone who takes advantage of people who have few options. He deserves a face punch.

There's something going on with Mallory's home life, but I don't have enough clues left.

I'm at Chapter 7 and I'm just going to say that these chess tournaments are very different than the ones I played in. A few things are the same though.

[Lindsey]

I thought it was really interesting that shes putting Mallory on a work out schedule bc of how many calories they burn in those long tournaments. That's wild!

Lea, what were the tournaments like when you did them?

[Lea]

Lindsey wrote: "I thought it was really interesting that shes putting Mallory on a work out schedule bc of how many calories they burn in those long tournaments. That's wild!

Lea, what were the tournaments like when you did them?"

Welp, I'm so old I rode to most of the tournaments on my dinosaur. :-)

Things that are the same -

1. The misogyny is real. I hope things are better now.

2. You definitely had to dress up for tournaments.

3. There were people who were known and referred to by their stats. Like this Zack guy who keeps telling everyone his rating. Like Oz who is 20. That happens.

Things that are different -

1. When I was playing chess, there were only 3 female Grand Masters ever. Even today, there has only been 1 female GM from the United States. (She was also born in Ukraine.) So, all these female GM and players rated above 2400 doesn't seem real.

2. Dress code - This was very subjective, especially based upon location of the tournament, and especially for women, we were very careful not to wear anything controversial. They were looking for reasons to disqualify us.

3. Why do these people have their cell phones? I thought those were forbidden. Why is she taking photos and texting her friend? Only the media was allowed to have cameras in the tournament area. I can't imagine that has changed.

[Lindsey]

I'm glad you specifically mentioned the cell phone. I would think those would be forbidden too for cheating purposes. Even today in jacks science competitions there are no cell phones allowed by the participants. Exactly for that reason - the opportunity or temptation to cheat. I'm thinking she put it in there for purposes of the story, but in real life i would imagine they aren't allowed.

[Ioana]

I'm not reading the book with you, but reading your comments 😉
...cell phones in a competition? Of any kind? That sounds highly unethical, not to mention the distraction it might create. Aren't chess competitions supposed to be quiet?

[Lea]

Lindsey wrote: "I'm glad you specifically mentioned the cell phone. I would think those would be forbidden too for cheating purposes. Even today in jacks science competitions there are no cell phones allowed by the participants. Exactly for that reason - the opportunity or temptation to cheat. I'm thinking she put it in there for purposes of the story, but in real life i would imagine they aren't allowed."

Yes! There are so many ways to cheat nowadays. I was playing before the era of cell phones, but even then and even in regular high school play at very tiny high school, we were not allowed to have a camera on our person. If we wanted a team photo, we either had to take the photo outside afterwards or ask a member of the media to take the photo, which they might do in exchange for a good interview.

I'm further along and now they are introducing the concept of seconds. That totally happens. But, usually you wouldn't broadcast who your seconds are or meet at a public restaurant like an iHop.

It does strain credulity that Mallory would win so many competitions early on without having studied her opponents weaknesses.

[Lea]

Ioana wrote: "I'm not reading the book with you, but reading your comments 😉
...cell phones in a competition? Of any kind? That sounds highly unethical, not to mention the distraction it might create. Aren't chess competitions supposed to be quiet?"

Yeah, I don't understand it myself, because I competed in the era before cell phones.

I think the author wanted to connect the main character to her best friend, so had her send a selfie of herself on the tournament floor. I can't imagine that happening. I think it would have been a better plot device to have the main character send a link to an article which had her picture in it or something. That is much more plausible. There are cameras on tournament floor, but they shouldn't be held by any of the participants or spectators. Only those with a press pass. And the press does tend to like to find a good special interest story and take photos showing all the different types of people who play chess, so it would make sense that she was in a lot of photos or interviewed.

Maybe I need to write my own chess book. I have quibbles with both this and The Queen's Gambit. I'd probably make it too realistic though. And therefore, super boring. :-)

[Ioana]

I've read The Queen's Gambit too soon afterEndgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall—From America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness, and that was a mistake. Too much of it did not match the reality...

[Lea]

Ioana wrote: "I've read The Queen's Gambit too soon afterEndgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall—From America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness, and that was a mistake. Too much of it did not match the reality..."

I haven't read too many biographies of chess grandmasters, but I bet it would be somewhat interesting. So many grandmasters have so many other life challenges.

[Lindsey]

One of the moms at jiu-jitsu last night was telling me the movie of The Queens Gambit was awesome!!! I didn't realize it was a book too.

Hmmm.... future buddy read???

[Lea]

Lindsey wrote: "One of the moms at jiu-jitsu last night was telling me the movie of The Queens Gambit was awesome!!! I didn't realize it was a book too.

Hmmm.... future buddy read???"

I've already read it, but I think it would be a good one to buddy read. :-)

[Lindsey]

I seriously hate Koch!!!! What a d%$k!!!

[Lea]

OK my friends, I'm at Chapter 8, and I'm like nope, nope, nope. My understanding of real chess rules is either very wrong or spoiling my read of this book.

Also...in other news...I hate Koch so much.

In order not to spoil anyone or bore anyone with reality, I'll hide my thoughts under a spoiler tag.

(view spoiler)[Unless things have seriously changed in the last few years, a chess clock is really two adjacent clocks with buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, the two clocks do not run simultaneously. They are each set to half the tournament time. Therefore, both players cannot both run out of time during a tournament. If one player's clock runs out of time, they lose the game. It does not matter what the position is on the board or who has gathered the most pieces. Time management is a crucial part of the game. Since the clock is set to half the tournament time, there never should be an instance (as long as clocks are being used) where both players exceed the total time for the tournament.

Essentially, if Koch was out of his own time, he would have lost, and it would have been recorded as a loss versus a draw.

Also, and I know it must be boring to follow actual chess rules, but you aren't allowed to say anything (profanity or otherwise) to your opponent during a match. The only thing you can do is offer a draw. (You also aren't allowed to repeatedly offer draws either.) Otherwise, you can only talk to your opponent through an arbiter. There shouldn't have been all that talking and moving going on. And from my experience, there are way too many cameras and arbiters and spectators to get away with all that trash talk that Koch was doing. In my experience, the arbiters were very involved in what was going on and always walking around. I never had to make a complaint myself, the arbiters always saw bad behavior right away and got it stopped.

It's also bugging me that Defne spent all this time preparing Mallory, making her read up on all those historical chess openings, but failed to tell her basic tournament rules.

I clearly need to pretend I don't know anything about the game and probably it will read smoother for me. (hide spoiler)]

[Lea]

Lindsey wrote: "I seriously hate Koch!!!! What a d%$k!!!"

LOL, he is such a villain. I said that too. Where are you at?

[Lindsey]

Lea, i love everything you said in your spoiler. I've never been in or to a chess tournament so i have no idea what the real rules are. You just explained alot. Here was something bugging me - (view spoiler)[ When i have seen a chess tournament on a tv show, there normally isn't any talking. So Koch's trash talking is what i would expect on a football field, not a chess tournament. I'm sure theres some stuff that happens to get under your opponents skin, but I always see chess as an intellectual sport, unlike football. And i do love football and will sit in front of my tv for hours on Saturday come September screaming at the dumb mistakes my team makes.

And the intimidation tactics he uses. Ugh! (hide spoiler)]

[Lindsey]

Ok, I KNEW IT!!!!!! I knew it I knew it I knew this was going to hapen. I'm on chapter 23. So if you're not there don't read the spoiler --> (view spoiler)[I knew Koch cheated!!!!! I saw that from a mile away!! (hide spoiler)]

[Lindsey]

I finished. 😊

Ok here are some overall thoughts without getting into spoilers:

I really liked Mallory's character. I hated how she felt responsible for everything that happened to her family amd carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. I think that was very selfless of her to give upnher dreams to support her family.

Over the course of the book I really came to like Nolan's character. He just had a calming effect on everything.

I love having a character to simply despise and Koch was that for me. I wanted to chop off his man parts and shoce them down his throat. Lol

I found the backdrop of chess very interesting. At the end of the book the author says she took some liberties of how things really work in the chess world for purposes of the book. Since that isn't a world i grew up in (going to chess tournaments), I found it fun and interesting. However. If it had been, i might feel differently with some of the liberties she took.

I liked the ending. I think one of my big frustrations with this book is that its listed as YA, which means my son should be able to read it. There was an awful lot of cursing for a YA book. I think that could have been toned down and still the same emotions exuded on the page.

When everyone else finishes then we can talk more spoilers.

[Lea]

Lindsey wrote: "Lea, i love everything you said in your spoiler. I've never been in or to a chess tournament so i have no idea what the real rules are. You just explained alot. Here was something bugging me - "

Yes! (view spoiler)[ There is trash talking in chess, but it doesn't happen on the tournament floor. It happens before and after. People do try to distract, but it usually isn't with speaking, as that is easy to catch and is obviously on purpose. The cologne wearing that they referred to sometimes happens, but can't be too blatant or done on the regular. I had one opponent who liked to sit and tip their chair back on its back legs, and one time he broke the chair. That was a bit distracting. And another guy who liked to shake his leg, and the whole table was shaking. If you can break your opponent's concentration and cause him/her to make a stupid move or waste valuable clock time, it can produce an advantage. (hide spoiler)]

[Lea]

Lindsey wrote: "Ok, I KNEW IT!!!!!! I knew it I knew it I knew this was going to hapen. I'm on chapter 23. So if you're not there don't read the spoiler --> [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I also felt like she was going that route! Cheating in the chess community is real. We didn't have smartphones in my day, but I do understand that hiding one in the restroom is apparently a new craze. In our day, it was having a spectator that would signal what to do. (hide spoiler)]

[Alissa]

Did you both finish it>??> darn it! lol

[Lea]

Alissa wrote: "Did you both finish it>??> darn it! lol"

Yes! Where are you at?

[Lea]

I appreciated the author saying that she took some liberties of how things work in chess tournaments to build drama, and she did. I pretended that everything was new rules, and that helped somewhat, but I kind of thought that the author knew enough about chess to confuse/bore the readers who didn't know much about chess (discussing Judit Polgar, en passant, all the various chess openings such as the Danish Gambit, the Ruy Lopez, etc.) but not enough about chess to describe how characters should be playing, strategies, etc. Also, just so you all know, the top chess player in the world right now typically loses several games in a 12-game match. It is pretty impossible to have Mallory's record.

I liked Nolan. I was mixed on Mallory. I did like how it showed how taking on all the responsibilities wasn't good for her mental health, and not the right thing to do. I didn't like the big hissy fit she threw in the last 20% of the book, it seemed very unrealistic.

I didn't like Sabrina or Darcy very much, and I couldn't get on board with the mom either. I think Hazelwood tried to explain why she let her daughter take on all of that responsibility, but it didn't work for me.

I'm not overly sensitive to language, but my overall impression was that the author was trying too hard to make this book edgy. Let's throw a few references to TikTok and Timothee Chalamet and Riverdale, and then this book counts as YA. I don't even know what YA is anymore, or what is should be.

Does it seem like fan fiction about what would happen if Anna Cramling and Magnus Carlsen fell in love? Yes. :-)

That said, I liked the book. I liked the way the characters interacted and guessing how we would get to the end. I liked reading about chess and remembering what it was like as well as what it could be. Fun topic for me.

[Lindsey]

I found the training for the tournaments fascinating. In real life do the players have the seconds to really coach them?

[Lea]

Lindsey wrote: "I found the training for the tournaments fascinating. In real life do the players have the seconds to really coach them?"

Yes! Absolutely. Your seconds work with you before the tournaments, but the most interesting work they do is during the tournaments.

The seconds will be reviewing all the other games that are being played.

So if I'm your second, while you and Alissa are playing one another, I'm going to be snooping on how Ioana's game is going right now, since you're likely going to play her next. You aren't able to do a detailed review yourself; since you are playing at the same time as Ioana right now and the next match will start shortly.

However, the one thing that isn't entirely accurate is that you usually don't reveal who your seconds are. People may guess if they see you together, so you try not to be seen together in public.

While I'm nosing around Ioana's game, she may or may not know that I'm watching her (maybe I'm watching from a distance on a monitor or maybe I'm lurking), but she definitely doesn't know for sure who I'll be feeding info in the short break between this game and the next game.

If you find out who someone's seconds are, you can feed them bad information. :-)

[Ioana]

Lea wrote: "Yes! Absolutely. Your seconds work with you before the tournaments, but the most interesting work they do is during the tournaments."

This is fascinating. Do chess players have coaches, like in other sports? I thought these would do this kind of intelligence gathering, in a more or less official way, so everyone knows that their results/strategies are being fed to their potential opponents. It's surprising that you don't know who is gathering this information...

[Lea]

Ioana wrote: "This is fascinating. Do chess players have coaches, like in other sports? I thought these would do this kind of intelligence gathering, in a more or less official way, so everyone knows that their results/strategies are being fed to their potential opponents. It's surprising that you don't know who is gathering this information..."

Yes, but they do separate things. Your coach is going to try to grow your potential and improve your game. Your seconds are going to be your eyes on the ground and help develop strategies with your existing strengths and weaknesses.

[Alissa]

I'm almost done, at like 80% !

Mallory is "okay" but I'm not a huge fan of hers and how she treated Nolan initially. (view spoiler)[ I did like the role switcharoo where Nolan is the innocent virgin and Mallory is the one who has the experience. I found it endearing (hide spoiler)]

I am learning a lot about the sport which I never knew- They play chess in the Olympics???? Also, it's really sad that gender inequality is so rampant.

[Alissa]

I also loved Tanu and Emil so much

[Lindsey]

Alissa wrote: "I also loved Tanu and Emil so much"

I loved those characters too!!!! 😍

[Lea]

Alissa wrote: "I'm almost done, at like 80% !

Mallory is "okay" but I'm not a huge fan of hers and how she treated Nolan initially. [spoilers removed]

I am learning a lot about the sport which I never knew- They play chess in the Olympics???? Also, it's really sad that gender inequality is so rampant."

I don't believe chess has ever been in the Olympics, although it has been argued many times.

The Chess community has it's own Olympiad, but it is separate from the actual Olympics. Here's a wikipedia article about the Chess Olympiad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_O...

Tanu and Emil cracked me up, but I really loved Oz. He made me laugh.