The Queen of Katwe : A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster

The Queen of Katwe : A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster
ISBN: 9781922070159
Publication Date: 24 October 2012

The true story of a female prodigy from the Ugandan slum of Katwe.

Phiona Mutesi sleeps in a mud hut with her mother and siblings, and struggles to find a meal each day. She is also one if the best chess players in the world.

One day in 2005, while searching for food, nine-year-old Phiona followed her brother to a dusty veranda where she met Robert Katende, a refugee who had also grown up in the slams. Robert hand improbable aspiration: to empower Katwe's kids thought chess - game so foreign that there was no word for it in their native language. Robert taught the game each day. At first the children came for the free porridge, but many grew to love chess, a game that - as in their daily lives - meant navigating obstacles. One talented young girl stood out: Phiona.

By the age of 11, Phiona was Uganda's junior champion; at 15, she was the national champion. In 2010, she travelled to Siberia to compete in the Chess Olympiad, the world's most prestigious team-chess event. Phiona's dream is to become a chess grandmaster. But to reach that goal, she must grapple with life in one of the world's most unstable countries - a place where girls are taught to be mothers, not dreamers, and the threats of AIDS, kidnapping, and starvation loom constantly.

Like Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon's The Dressmaker of Khair Khama. This is an intimate and heart-rending portrait of human life on the urban fringers in the 21st century.

About the Author

Tim Crothers is an author and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated who is joining the sports staff to write a regular column during the rest of the college basketball season.