Kwadwo Acheampong slams the black queen down on the board.
"Check," shouts the lanky 11-year-old. He starts counting off the seconds, pressuring his opponent to make a move.
It's spring and after a year of disciplined early morning practices and prestigious tournaments, the state champion chess team from Public School 70 on Weeks Avenue is letting loose.
The game? Bughouse.
"It's fast and the momentum gets you going and when you win it's better than regular chess," Kwadwo said, after winning his second match of the morning.
Bughouse is a treat for the nearly 40 students, said their teacher, David MacEnulty. In contrast to the chess the students usually play at 7:30 a.m. daily, this game is played in pairs on two boards. The pieces rotate from player to player with some flying from the table. Whoever captures the king wins.
The game is also a reward for a year of hard work and success, MacEnulty said.
At 15 tournaments during the school year, the team's core of 20 to 27 players won a total of 80 individual and team trophies. In addition to the state championship in March, the team took fifth and seventh place in the National Scholastic Championship in Little Rock, Ark., last month. And Evan Alvarez, 5, placed fifth in the kindergarten competition.
The players in Arkansas were tough, said Awilda Irizarry, 11.
"I was excited and scared, because I didn't know if I was going to win or lose," said the fifth-grader, who won four out of seven games.
Air travel was also new for Alwida, who said she was nervous when her ears clogged during the takeoff.
But winning matches and flying around the country is not the only reason for playing chess, she said. The game also requires useful skills.
"You have to plan to make a move in chess," she said. "You have to do that in real life."
And Awilda has plans -- she wants to be a judge.
For Kwadwo, chess is similar to his other love, basketball.
"It's better because you think," he said. "But it's the same because you have to make choices like you do in basketball."
Kwadwo is also planning for his future. He wants to be a "basketball player, chess player or computer programmer -- whichever comes first," he said.
Saying the game teaches judgment and concentration, MacEnulty added: "There's virtually no academic subject that doesn't have a chess spinoff."
As in life and school, different players have different styles.
Even in Bughouse, Awidla's hand pauses over the board as she contemplates her move. Acheampong snatches his opponent's pieces off the board and throws up his hands when he wins.
And with the wisdom of a kindergartner, Evan Alvarez philosophizes about the game:
"It's fun because when you win you get happy and when you lose you still get happy because it's still fun."