Informationen zum Autor Ali Hazelwood Klappentext When eighteen-year-old Mallory begrudgingly agrees to return to chess in one last charity tournament, her surprise upset against Nolan Sawyer, the reigning world champ and bad boy of the chess world, sets her on an worldwind adventure as she rediscovers her passion for the game. Leseprobe 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 hostJim or James or Jimmyasks. 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 sothere 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 calledand 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 purpleand 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?

Autorentext

Ali Hazelwood

Klappentext

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…)