Lindo’s daughter Waverly Jong says that when she was six, her mother taught her “the art of invisible strength,” a lesson that helped her to become a child chess prodigy. She then begins the story of how her talent emerged: at Christmas, one of the members of the Jongs’ church in Chinatown dressed as Santa Claus and handed out wrapped Christmas gifts, the donations of members of another church. Waverly got a multipack box of Lifesavers, and one of her brothers got a secondhand chess set that was missing two pieces. By offering two of her Lifesavers to stand in for the missing pieces, Waverly convinced her brothers, Winston and Vincent, to let her play. The winner could eat both candies. Awestruck by what she deemed to be a sort of hidden power within each piece, Waverly closely studied the dog-eared instruction booklet and borrowed chess strategy guides from the Chinatown library. She soon learned that the game hinged on invisible strength in the form of secret traps and keen foresight. After her brothers lost interest in the game, Waverly began playing with Lau Po, an old man who played chess in the park. He taught her many new strategies.