Pria Romano is nobody's pawn. As an up-and-coming Grandmaster at only twenty-five, she's the queen of the chess world. Now, crippling anxiety is ruining her play, and she needs help from World Champion Alexey Minkov to get her game back. But Alexey's help comes at a price, and it's one that might take Pria off the board for good.

With her gameplay, emotions, and actions spiralling out of control, leading to censure from the Chess Federation, Pria washes up in a strange sanctuary: Queens Gambit, the last chess shop in New York.

Marina Malkin has always felt like a pawn in someone else's game. Since dropping out of college, she's been content helping her grandfather run Queens Gambit. But when he passes away, Marina discovers that the shop is deep in debt. Under pressure to sell the only place she's ever felt at home, Marina makes a bold move--planning a chess tournament that will pit the King and Queen of the chess world, Alexey and Pria, against each other, with the proceeds going to save Queens Gambit.

If they can work together to make the tournament a success, Marina can save her shop, and Pria can revive her career. But will those dreams survive a misogynistic chess culture that wants to see them fail? And, when it turns out that only one of them can win, will Pria and Marina stand together or decide that the board only has space for one queen?

For fans of Netflix's The Queen's Gambit, this novel offers intense chess-driven ambition and angst through the lens of female friendship and empowerment.