“I can’t believe you prefaced all of this with ‘you probably never thought of it.’ ” Nolan’s tone is dry and amused, and I can’t keep the words inside me anymore.
“I want to be with you,” I push out. Shaky. And then, when nothing explodes at the revelation, I repeat it more firmly. “I want to be with you. As much as I can. As much as you’ll have me.”
I’ve said it. It’s out there. I’ve set it free, and I watch Nolan hawkishly, on the lookout for an answer, for any kind of emotional reaction. But his dark eyes are as inscrutable as ever.
“I’m glad you said that,” he tells me. Like he’s complimenting a good chess move. Like this is not the biggest leap I’ve ever taken.
“Why?”
He’s staring at me with a small smile. It’s barely noticeable, but somehow manages to make the entire earth tip over. “Because now I can say it back.”
I close my eyes, feeling like my every atom is in the middle of a seismic event. But Venice is still witching-hours calm, and Nolan’s heat is so close, it centers me, grounds me more than I thought I could ever be. “The last time we talked, I said a lot of things that weren’t true. And I forgot to say one thing that was. Which is that I was happy with you. The days we had in New York were . . .”
He seems vaguely amused at my inability to articulate my emotions. “Good?”
“Yeah. Very. And I’d like to have more. A lot more. Starting . . . now, if possible. Even though . . .” I look around and let out a choked laugh. “This is really poor timing on my part.”
He smiles. “I don’t know if I agree.”
“Why?”
He gestures to the board with his head. “We are about to spend a lot of time together.”
“Right. There is that.” I scratch the back of my neck to stop myself from reaching out for him. I want to. But maybe I shouldn’t. But I want to. “By the way . . . since you’re not a newbie like me, do you have any advice?”
He tilts his head, pensive. “Make sure you have breakfast.”
“Right. Breakfast.”
“Something with protein, if possible.”
“Okay.” I wait for him to continue. Frown when he doesn’t. “Really, that’s it? Are you hoarding advice?”
He shrugs. “That’s all I have.”
“Come on, Nolan. You’ve done three of these.”
“Yeah. But this one is unlike any other championship.”
“Why is that?”
I look at him looking at me, and overflow with something I cannot put a name to. “Because when I’m with you, Mallory, everything is different. When I’m with you, I want to play more than I want to win.”
My eyes begin to tear up, but I’m not sad. For the first time in a long, long while, I’m a million things, and sad is not any of them.
“You know,” I say, taking a step closer. Then another. Then one into him, and it’s like stepping into a new world. A new era of my life. “I’ve been reading a lot of chess theory. Big, tedious books. And they all say that when chess is solved, when the perfect game is played— they say that it will be boring. Because it will inevitably end in a draw.”
I feel his smile in the beat of his heart. “They do?”
I nod.
“Well, then.” His arms close around me. His lips speak into my hair. His chest rises and falls against my ear, and I know it in my gut, like I know chess, that this is where I’m meant to be. “It will be fun when we prove them wrong.”
Six and a half hours later, the mayor of Venice, a tall man with a thick black beard and a hard-to-pronounce last name, sets my queen’s pawn on d4 in the ceremonial first move of the World Chess Championship.
The cameras click.
The spectators clap.
The waves push patiently into the lagoon.
Then the mayor leaves, closing the glass door behind him, and the garden lulls into a peaceful quiet.
I （Mallory Greenleaf; US; World ranking: #1,843） glance at my opponent （Nolan Sawyer; US; World ranking: #1）。
I find him already looking at me, a warm smile in his dark eyes.
Two years later
THE NEXT WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
AND THE FACT THAT EVERYONE
IS TALKING ABOUT IT— EXPLAINED
By Eleni Gataki, Senior Chess Correspondent, BBC
The upcoming World Chess Championship, which will start on March 15, is going to be the most viewed in history. By a lot. This is a biannual event that, in evolving formats, has been occurring since before any of us has been alive （the first championship took place in New York City in 1886）。 And yet, it is safe to bet that most people haven’t heard about the World Chess Championship until this year. So, what changed, and what are the five factors suddenly making a chess match discussed almost as much as the Super Bowl? Well, let’s start from the obvious:
NOLAN SAWYER, THE CURRENT NO. 1 CHESS PLAYER IN THE WORLD
Chances are, if you’ve heard of only one chess player in your life, it’s Fischer, Kasparov, or Sawyer. The grandson of former world champion Marcus Sawyer, Nolan Sawyer （22） has been a phenomenon since his childhood. You’ve probably seen pictures of him looking adorable and vanquishing opponents four times his age at 8 years old, or you might have heard of his terrible temper and that story about him beating （not only at chess） disgraced player Malte Koch （although this is just an unsubstantiated rumor）， or you might be familiar with him from the year he made Time’s 100 Most Influential People list at the age of 15. The fact remains, you’re likely to have heard of him. And his notoriety has only been increased by . . .
MALLORY GREENLEAF, WHO . . . EXISTS.
Soon to turn 21, Mallory Greenleaf is currently ranked No. 5 in the world . . . and yet she is the world champion. It might seem counterintuitive, but whereas the world champion is determined by a specific tournament, the ranking is a combination of all the games a player undertakes.
But don’t let Greenleaf’s “lowly” No. 5 fool you: the only reason she’s not ranked higher is that her path to chess was very unusual. A high school graduate from New Jersey with a GM father, Greenleaf played in unrated tournaments from ages 5 to 14, then returned to chess at 18, just in time to triumph in the last World Chess Championship, which took place two years ago in Venice, Italy. Greenleaf defeated Sawyer on the twelfth match, after eleven draws. As the first woman to not only qualify for but also win a chess championship, she made headlines. For her chess abilities, sure, but also because . . .
NOLAN SAWYER AND MALLORY GREENLEAF . . . WELL. IT’S UNCLEAR.
Rumors regarding a possible relationship between the two players abound, but they have not been confirmed, as both Sawyer and Greenleaf have refused to answer questions about their private lives. That said, they are regularly photographed together holding hands. According to her Instagram post, when Greenleaf dropped off her sister at Brown University last fall, Sawyer was present. Sources close to the two have revealed that they live together in the same Tribeca apartment that was once Marcus Sawyer’s. And then, of course, there was the long hug between them that happened in front of the cameras after Greenleaf defeated Sawyer in the World Championship （noteworthy, in a sport whose players usually limit themselves to a handshake）。 There is also the fact that three months ago Sawyer appeared to lean in and playfully bite Greenleaf’s ear while walking away from the final game at the Linares International Chess Tournament, in which he defeated her. Plenty of clues have given rise to speculations, but whether Sawyer and Greenleaf are soon to be the first family of chess, or are just good friends, is still unknown. And yet . . .