48 pages • 1 hour read
Ali HazelwoodCheck & Mate
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Vulnerability, Pain, and Love
Check & Mate uses Mallory’s journey to illustrate both the pain that vulnerability can cause and the joys that it can provide if one is willing to lean into it. Mallory’s starting position in the novel is that of guardedness. She knows she is good at compartmentalizing to help her “survive day by day without hyperventilating about all sorts of stuff. It’s either compartmentalizing or going broke buying inhalers” (32). She has legitimate reasons to do so, and despite its drawbacks, it helps her cope. Her father hurt her deeply when she was a vulnerable teen, putting her in the precarious position of deciding whether to tell her mother about his affair and then blaming her for doing so. When her parents’ split and her mother’s subsequent illness leads to deteriorating family circumstances, Mallory takes over responsibility for helping them survive. With her mother so ill, Mallory has little choice, and compartmentalization helps her survive and provide for her family.
However, the events of the novel reveal that Mallory’s clinging to that compartmentalization and emotional distancing does her harm by preventing any strong emotional connections, romantic or otherwise. Mallory admits to herself, “I don’t have room to care about anything that’s not family. I don’t have room to care about myself – not that I deserve it. But it’s nice to steal brief, harmless, contained moments of fun” (50). By limiting herself to superficial “fun” and avoiding honest conversation or even self-awareness about the pain she has bottled up, Mallory allows the pressure inside of her to build while feeling she cannot burden anyone with her pain. When she talks to her mother on the phone while at a tournament, she wants “to tell her so bad that my guts are twisted and I feel like crying and tearing apart this entire hotel and people need to stop, stop, stop looking at me […] I wish she was here, I wish Dad was here, I wish I didn’t feel so alone” (134). Mallory cannot deal with her emotions because she has learned to avoid all opportunities for vulnerability.
This is why her developing relationship with Nolan frightens her. She recognizes that she does not only feel physical attraction and professional admiration; she also feels valued and cared for. At the Chess Olympics, Nolan carries her to bed, leaves water, and plugs her phone into her charger, but Mallory avoids confirming that it was him. Mallory has spent so long caring for her family that she does not know how to accept care and affection from anyone else. Once Mallory’s earnings help get Mrs. Greenleaf better medication, however, she insists on stepping back into her role as a mother. She gives Mallory space, but once it becomes clear that Mallory is running from her problems while using their family’s past as an excuse, Mrs. Greenleaf speaks up:
Guilt and responsibility are heavy burdens, Mallory. But they’re also something we can hide behind, and now you can’t do that anymore. You are free to do what you love […] it has to be your decision. Your choice, free of constraints. And to do that, you’re going to have to look into yourself, and be honest about what you want. And yes, I know that’s terrifying. But life is too long to be afraid (180)
It's not until Mrs. Greenleaf is able and willing to step back in as a parent that Mallory finally gives in and is vulnerable with her mother. Once this happens, she notes that she is more often on the edge of tears, but she tries to accept these emotions and rely on her family for support. This character development is what allows her to give into her feelings for Nolan.
Gender Discrimination and its Effects
Check & Mate presents the experience of being a woman in a male-dominated arena, illustrating the dynamics that often develop in such communities and the effects they have on women. Although Mallory has dealt with misogyny during her teen years, such as in her work at the auto shop, her departure from the chess world at a young age prevented her from seeing how blatantly misogynistic some communities can be. The atmosphere shocks her when she returns. At her first tournament social event, at which she is the only woman present, she notes in shock that the men were “so blatantly, openly rude” compared to the misogynistic men she had encountered before (60). She understands why, according to Oz, most women in the chess world skip the mainstream tournaments and attend women-only ones instead.
The misogyny of the chess world follows Mallory and gains ground in both the social circles and leadership of chess. In a television debate over why Mallory was invited to participate in the Challengers tournament, talk show hosts assert the role of Mallory’s gender in the decision, first claiming that the choice could be a way to respond to critiques over the lack of female representation in professional chess and then choosing to believe that she was chosen because she is the supposed girlfriend of the reigning World Champion, Nolan. The hosts do not stop to consider how insulting their comments are, revealing the depth of their misogynistic beliefs.
The novel also reveals the impact of internalized misogyny on women through Mallory’s own realizations. She has always believed herself to be a staunch feminist and capable of withstanding sexist remarks and expectations, but she is forced to consider her own unrecognized feelings of being “less than” through her experiences in the world of chess. The novel hints at this journey early on, when Defne first approaches Mallory about her defeat of Nolan in the charity tournament and tells her, “Stop putting yourself down and take credit for it – you think Nolan would be half as reticent? You think any guy would be?” (34). Mallory also recognizes her instincts to protect herself by hiding: Despite never altering her fashion choices in response to men before, she finds herself changing out of the dress she had originally chosen for the second day of her first tournament after other chess players’ crude comments about her appearance. When Defne sits her down for an honest conversation about sexism in the field, Mallory stops to consider whether she doubts her abilities somewhere in her subconscious, as Defne admits she did for a time under the weight of being mistreated in the world of professional chess.
The novel doesn’t point to a definite solution or attempt to dictate how women should respond to sexism. Defne tells Mallory about why many women play in separate leagues with separate rankings:
It’s a controversial topic: some say these leagues shouldn’t exist, because they hold women back and imply that they cannot hold their own against male players. Others disagree, and want to preserve a space in which we’re not harassed or made to feel like we’re less […] I think it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t. There’s no winning here, and that’s part of why I stopped playing competitively (127).
Nonetheless, Defne encourages Mallory to keep playing and breaking down barriers in professional chess. She opened Zugzwang for that very reason: to support others and build a safe space within the world of chess for anyone who is not a cisgender male. The novel offers a hopeful potential future in which these issues are finally addressed. Through the BBC article about the chess World Championship two years after the events of the novel, Hazelwood paints a picture of increased acceptance: “What’s most notable is that interest in chess is, for the first time in decades, higher among women than men. Furthermore, there are currently more women and nonbinary people in the FIDE top 500 than ever before” (213).
Sexuality and Relationships
Check & Mate, despite revealing the misogynistic elements of certain groups, illustrates what life might be like if sexuality were treated with less societal obsession and more healthy honesty. The first way the novel reveals this is through the casual treatment of Mallory as being bisexual and Easton, her best friend, as being homosexual. Mallory’s primary love interest may end up being a man—Nolan—but the first reference to a romantic or sexual encounter for her on page one is her small smile of acknowledgment to another girl with whom she had gone out. Mallory recalls at least one other female sexual partner, and she meets a boy (her friend, Hasan) for sexual encounters regularly during the summer before his first year of college. Mallory is never shamed for her sexual experience, even when Easton asks if she might want a real connection instead. In fact, Mallory notes, “I still like sex as a recreational activity, and I’m grateful that I was raised by a very open-minded family” (50). She was raised with honest conversations about sex, so sex does not turn into a forbidden or shameful part of her life. Such honesty creates a dynamic often not seen in broader societal conversations about sex. This portrayal offers an element of idealism to the story and aligns with a social push for media involving the LGBTQ+ community to stop limiting their narratives to the potential struggles of being non-heterosexual.
Although Mallory is not shamed for her sexual life, she does learn that it is alright to be vulnerable with one’s partner rather than keeping them at arm’s length. From the beginning of the novel, she believes it is “safer not to [be in a relationship]. In my experience, commitment leads to expectations, and expectations lead to lies, and hurt, and disappointment – stuff I’d rather not experience, or force others to experience” (50). As she experiences the positive aspects of being cared for, though, Mallory understands why her friend asked about wanting connection in a relationship. The final straw for Mallory is learning to lean on her family again after being responsible for them for so long. This crucial moment of vulnerability helps her learn that she can risk the pain of vulnerability in romantic relationships as well.
Nolan’s sexuality also provides insight into a life where sexuality is not a pressing concern. He lives on the opposite side of the spectrum as Mallory, being a virgin at 20 years old and admitting to never having wanted sex or a relationship until meeting her. Despite living in such a different way, Nolan clearly does not avoid sex out of shame or a particular kind of morality; he simply has not wanted it before Mallory. His actions reveal that this is just as reasonable as Mallory’s choice to be sexually active. When she is shocked at hearing he is a virgin, he remains “confident, calm like he has nothing to prove to anyone, like he doesn’t care to be anyone but himself, fully himself. At least here, tonight, with me” (111). Once the two have sex, she watches him the following day. She recalls that there was an awkwardness about him as he learned about sex with her, but she also notes that after such awkwardness, “Other guys would be drowning in their fragile masculinity today, but Nolan just seems deeply, genuinely happy” (162). Nolan resists stereotypical examples of toxic masculinity by remaining completely comfortable with himself, illustrating alongside Mallory what life could be like if there was less cultural obsession with sex.
Related Titles
By Ali Hazelwood
