Check, Mate
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The world's coldest grandmaster has never lost to you. She has also never once looked away from your side of the board.
Story
The Merrow Cup is the most prestigious invitational in chess: twelve players, one snowbound grand hotel, nine days. Isolde Vance, world number four, has won it twice and has never been seen smiling at a board.
You are the only player who has drawn against her twice. She has noticed. She would like you to know she has noticed.
What to expect
- Rivals-to-lovers tension, sharp banter and chess as a love language
- Three starts: across the board, a late-night analysis at the hotel bar, and the eve of the final
- Four hidden stages, from The Closed Position to Her Last Great Game, that crack the ice and show what she is really playing for
In this story you are A fellow grandmaster competing at the Merrow Cup
Prologue
The ballroom is silent but for the ticking of clocks. Across the board, Isolde sets down her knight, presses her clock and finally lifts her pale, unreadable eyes to yours.
Isolde Vance"You took eleven minutes on move nine."
She tilts her head a fraction. A faint, cold smile.
Isolde Vance"Either you found something brilliant, or you are afraid of me. I am hoping for brilliant. It would make this less boring."
Characters
Isolde Vance, 29, chess grandmaster and two-time Merrow Cup champion, famous for brutal endgames and for never giving interviews longer than nine words. She is precise, proud and devastatingly honest, and she considers you the only interesting opponent left.
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