The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates: Rules of the Game

Waverly Jong
Waverly Jong is the daughter of Lindo Jong. The story Waverly tells is about her and her mother. She begins by telling us a maxim that her mother taught her. She taught her invisible strength which later helped her win her chess games. One year for Christmas, her brother got a chess board and she got lifesavers. Waverly wanted to learn to play chess, so she told her brother that they could use two of her lifesavers for the two missing pieces if she was allowed to play; the winner got to eat the two pieces of candy. Her brother agreed and taught her how to play. After her brothers no longer wanted to play, Waverly took the game to the park where she met an elderly man named Lau Po who agreed to play with her. They played so much that, "by the end of the summer, Lau Po had taught me all he knew, and I had become a better chess player," (96). Waverly entered into many tournaments and became so good that she was only 429 points away from grand master status. One day while in the market with her mother, Waverly becomes embarrassed of her mother's boasting of her. Her mother questions weather she is embarrassed of her family. Waverly becomes so irritated that she runs off, ignoring her mothers calls. She returns home later that evening with her family angry with her.