Halima Kasim loves to play chess, but doesn't have enough people to play games with her. Her cousin Abdi lived in Kenya with a lot of extended Somali family, and he will play online with her sometimes, but her siblings aren't interested. Halima convinces her best friend, Jem, to play with her as a way to distract her from the death of her beloved grandfather, and the two approach Ms. Barnes to be their faculty advisor for a chess club. They recruit Parker, whose siblings play a lot of sports, and who wants something competitive that might make his parents pay attention to him. Daniel finds mysterious chess notes in library books and is lured into the club as well. The group has to deal with Lucas, an annoying bully whom Jem stand up to, and well as former friend Blake who sometimes gives them problems. Jem struggles with anger issues. The group spends a lot of time practicing, and eventually has a match against another team. The book includes many chess diagrams and descriptions of moves.

I really liked Duffy's illustrations, and this has more descriptions of the game of chess than most books I've read. Jem seemed like the main character to me, and her baking and dealing with the death of her grandfather was more prevalent than Halima's challenges. Pair this with Giles' Not an Easy Win or Gerber's Focused for readers who want stories centered around chess.