Not an Easy Win

The next day, Mr. Dennis lets Lawrence play chess for the first time. Lawrence assumes that he is going to play Mr. Dennis—convinced that he will beat him—but instead, he plays Junior. Lawrence only gets to play six moves before he loses.

On the way home, he is still trying to figure out how he lost so quickly. He realizes that he is nowhere near as good as he thought he was. However, Mr. Dennis encourages him by saying that he lost even worse the first time he played. He gives Lawrence the list of moves from the game—listed in chess notation—and then explains what it means. He tells Lawrence to go home and draw a chess board, number the squares, and then learn how to read and write notation.

That night, Lawrence draws the board and struggles to understand it. He is annoyed by the fact that he has “homework,” telling himself that he only wanted to learn chess to impress Twyla. However, he tries anyway, sitting at the kitchen table.

That night, Lawrence sleeps in his mother’s bed instead of on the living room floor. However, he is unable to sleep, thinking about Mr. Dennis, Granny, his grandfather, and chess.

Lawrence spends the week studying chess. He has no board, but he draws out games at home and plays himself each morning at the rec center. On Friday, he asks Junior to play him again. This time, he manages to check Junior once and lasts 26 moves before losing.

Lawrence is excited by how much better he has become, so he excitedly tells Twyla that afternoon that he is learning. However, Kendra tells him that Junior is not good at chess; he is worse than most of the kids at the center. Lawrence is disappointed, but Twyla encourages him, telling him that she’ll talk to Mr. Dennis about letting Lawrence play in the league on Monday.

The rest of the afternoon, Lawrence sits alone, listening to music and watching Twyla read. One of the other kids, Lin, asks him to play basketball, but Lawrence is afraid of embarrassing himself, so he declines. Deuce makes fun of him, calling him “chicken,” and threatens to steal his iPod. Lawrence ignores his anger and, instead, turns up his music until Deuce finally goes away.

While Lawrence is cleaning up that afternoon, Twyla comes and talks to him. She tells him not to let Deuce bother him; he picks on all the new kids. She asks Lawrence why he is there, and Lawrence tells her about getting kicked out of Andrew Jackson Middle School. He asks her about Booker T. Washington School—where she and most of the other Black kids in the area go. He wonders what it would be like to go there and be around other kids like him.

On Monday morning, Lawrence is nervous and excited, so he goes to Mr. Dennis’s house early. He works up the courage and finally asks Mr. Dennis if he can play, and Mr. Dennis agrees.

Lawrence spends the rest of the morning going over his games with Junior and thinking about everything Mr. Dennis has taught him. Most recently, he learned about the stages of a chess match: the opening, the middle game, and the endgame. He practices each on a board to prepare for his match. That afternoon, the kids gather in the chess room. Mr. Dennis announces that, instead of doing a formal day of matches, anyone is free to play who wants to. Lawrence realizes that he did that for Lawrence to ensure that he got a chance to play.

Lawrence takes the seat across from Lin, whom he has seen play before and knows isn’t that good. Lawrence controls the game from the beginning, noticing how Lin does not put much thought into his moves and fails to protect his king. After Lawrence wins, Twyla congratulates him, making his “heart dance inside [his] chest” (116).

The kids continue to play. Several games later, no one wants to play Deuce, so Lawrence volunteers. He realizes right away that he shouldn’t have done it, but he admits that he still has a problem controlling his anger and annoyance with Deuce. Lawrence tries to implement a strategy, but Deuce immediately puts him on the defensive, and he loses. He is angry that he lost but, more importantly, embarrassed that he lost in front of Twyla.

On the way home from the rec center, Lawrence keeps waiting for Mr. Dennis to bring up his loss to Deuce, but he never does. Instead, he congratulates Lawrence on his win.

When he gets home, he is excited to find Granny cooking fried chicken. She normally cooks the same things like canned salmon. He asks if she needs help with dinner, but she says no. Instead, she invites him to stay and talk with her in the kitchen—something that surprises Lawrence since he always felt like she didn’t want him around. He works up the courage to ask her why they are having chicken, commenting on how he dislikes leftovers and a lot of the food they normally consume. As soon as he asks, he regrets it, realizing how it sounded. However, she explains to him that she buys what she can with the money she has. She spends the same amount at the grocery store each week and has to be very careful with her money. Lawrence realizes that she bought chicken to make the kids feel better about Ma being gone so much.

As he sits in the kitchen with Granny and eats, Lawrence is content. His relationship is improving with Granny, he gets to eat fried chicken, and he won his first game of chess.

The next morning, Mr. Dennis talks with Lawrence about the upcoming junior chess tournament in Charlotte. Twyla and Deuce are going, and he suggests that Lawrence could be the third person if he practices. Lawrence is hesitant—especially after how badly he got beaten by Deuce—but he is excited by the idea and decides to talk to Twyla.

That afternoon, Twyla encourages Lawrence to try to make the tournament. She tells him that he needs to get a board of his own so that he can practice at home. She also tells him about a book that the center has that helped her get better.

Realizing that he can’t afford a chessboard, Lawrence asks Mr. Dennis if he has one. Mr. Dennis tells him that there is one in the closet that is old, dusty, and chipped but that Lawrence can have it if he cleans the closet. Lawrence excitedly agrees.

As Lawrence is cleaning the closet, Junior comes in to talk to him. He tells him that Deuce is doing poorly in school and will only be allowed to go to the chess tournament if he does better. Until then, he is not allowed to play basketball; he can only play chess and do schoolwork. He tells Lawrence that he wants him to practice with Deuce. Lawrence is annoyed by the thought of playing with Deuce every day and feels that Deuce will feel the same way. However, he realizes that he can’t say no to Junior and agrees.

The following afternoon, Lawrence goes into the chess room with Deuce. However, Deuce stares at the clock the entire time, occasionally glaring at Lawrence. Lawrence tries to talk to him, but Deuce dismisses him. Lawrence talks with Mr. Dennis on the ride home about Deuce, but Mr. Dennis refuses to give him any information. He insists that Lawrence and Deuce are the same and that Lawrence just needs to talk to him.

The next day, Lawrence tries to talk to Deuce confrontationally, asking him why he doesn’t like him. However, Deuce again dismisses him, so Lawrence angrily leaves.

Lawrence finds Twyla and Kendra, who are not surprised to see that he has already given up trying to play with Deuce. However, Lawrence insists that he hasn’t quit. He is just trying to find a way to get Deuce to talk to him. Twyla suggests music, telling Lawrence about a rap group that Deuce and Lin used to have and how much Deuce loves it.

During their next session, Lawrence ignores Deuce, instead blasting his dad’s music in his headphones. Eventually, Deuce asks what he’s listening to, and he tells him that it’s his dad’s playlist and offers him an earbud. The two sit side by side, listening to music for the rest of the afternoon. Deuce occasionally comments on how good the music is.

After the last song, Deuce asks where Lawrence’s dad is. Uncomfortable, Lawrence just tells him that he’s “gone.” In response, Deuce just says, “oh, okay,” which makes Lawrence “think he kn[ows] what gone mean[s]” (140).