The desire to gain "invisible strength"
Amy Tan opens the story saying, "I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength. It was a strategy
for winning arguments, respect from others, and eventually, though neither of us knew it
at the time, chess games." She talks about how gaining this "invisible strength" is one of the benefits of her chess playing. This isn't just mentioned in the first paragraph, but is shown again when she says, " I discovered
that for the whole game one must gather invisible strengths and see the endgame before
the game begins." She likes that chess has all these secrets that must never be told, and prides herself on learning these as she continues to get better.