Phiona Mutesi is one of the best chess players on earth. At 11 she was her country’s junior
champion, at 15 a national champion.
Soon after she traveled to Russia to participate in the Chess Olympiad,
the most prestigious event in the Chess world. Only in her teens, she sat across the board from experts
several years older, yet she played with an intensity and instinct that had
more experience players struggling to keep the upper hand – and not always
succeeding.
Her command of the game at such a young age certainly had
people talking. Certainly she must
have the best of coaches, the best education, and the best backing to be as
good as she is. Certainly the best
chess players have the best pedigree.
Certainly….not.
Phiona Mutesi is from Uganda, a country at the bottom of the
pecking order of African nations.
And she lives at the bottom of the pecking order of Uganda itself. She’s a child of Katwe - one of the
worst slums in the world.
The Queen of Katwe, by former Sports Illustrated senior
writer, Tim Crothers, is a gritty inspiration. Crothers introduces us to a culture where human life is
cheap. Where life, moment to
moment, is not guaranteed. Where
a teen girl’s goal is to give herself to a man, or more than one man, in order
to secure food and shelter – and hopefully support for children when she gets
pregnant. But in a country rampant
with AIDs, it’s not uncommon for that male support to succumb to the disease
and leave his offspring homeless and scraping for food.
This was the life that Phiona was born into. A world of mind-numbing destitution and
hopelessness.
But while Phiona and other children like her fought to
survive in the squalor that is Katwe, there were people who were determine to
bring hope.
People like Robert Katende who grew up in Katwe and fought
his way out. A man of strong faith
and a passion to mentor and love the kids who found their way to the Sports
Outreach center every day to get a bowl of porridge and learn chess.
People like Russ Carr, on staff at Liberty University, who,
25 years ago, founded the Sports Outreach Institute that uses sports as an
inroad to missionary work in third world nations.
And people like Norm and Tricia Popp who established the
Andrew Popp Memorial Scholarship to help Ugandan slum children get an
education, after their son’s tragic death.
Crothers masterfully intertwines these stories until each
life intersects at the moment when a shy, filthy little girl first placed
herself in front of a chessboard.
Rooks, bishops, knights, pawns, queens and kings fought for
survival and dominance on the board.
Each move that Phiona made would mean win or lose – a check- checkmate
reflection of her life in the muddy streets of Katwe.
But her excellence at this game opened doors that would
never have been opened to her.
Traveling around the world, sleeping in a real bed in a hotel with
toilets and running water, and most of all food, more than she could possibly
imagine.
Unfortunately, those tournaments that took her out of Katwe
would end, and she would return to the only life she had ever known.
Phiona is still in Katwe, going daily to play chess at a
little church outside of the slums.
She has dreams that she dared never to dream before – but getting out of
Katwe won’t be easy. But she has a
chance.
The Queen of Katwe does inspire, but Crother’s doesn’t
sugarcoat the reality of Phiona’s life in the slums. Being a chess champion means very little in the mean
streets.
So as Phiona’s gutsy attitude and determination lifts the
heart – her situation, and the situation of many Ugandan children like her,
can’t help but convict the spirits of those of us who are first-worlders.
The Queen of Katwe is an important book. We tend to forget how most of the world
lives. Phiona’s story is a moving
reminder that every life holds value, and we have the opportunity to influence
the endgame.
Free advanced reader
copy of The Queen of Katwe received from Scribner Publishing in exchange for an
honest review
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