Check and Mate

[Neil Graham]

In "The Works" - this book is prominently displayed. It was the Sunday Times bestseller and the Goodreads Choice Award Winner for 2023.

Written by Ali Hazelwood here's a short synopsis:-

In this clever and swoonworthy new novel from the New York Times and Sunday 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.

I'm sure everyone has read this - perhaps someone can comment on the chess elements in the book?

[Matt Mackenzie]

I'm sure everyone has read this

Erm......really??

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

My favourite review of this book on Goodreads:

dnf because the romance was nonexistent all they talked about was chess

[Paul Habershon]

To see if the author chose Nolan Sawyer as a hidden chess anagram I tried a search but got nothing better than 'analyser won', though you could have 'lawyers anon'.

[Kevin Thurlow]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/product-review ... filter-bar

One review suggests that the main characters are real chessplayers, so some lucky reader might be able to identify them. One reviewer, called "Autumn Melody", says, "Same old crap repackaged. Buddy read this with a friend who loves chess. The actual games mentioned in this book have typos! The romance is ewwwwwwww."

In fairness to the author, she is apparently a professional scientist, sells a lot of books, and more people loved the book than hated it.