Ugandan chess prodigy to play Bill Gates
Phiona Mutesi wasn’t always a jet-setting, child chess prodigy. The 16-year-old grew up in Katwe, a slum in Kampala. Her father died of AIDS when she was three and her sister met the same fate shortly thereafter. For Phiona, finding her next meal and caring for her brothers and sisters while her mother was working […]
Game of her life // an underdog story
Ugandan teenager Phiona Mutesi is the ultimate underdog. She grew up in one of the poorest spots on earth, couldn’t read or write, and scrounged for food each day for herself, her mother, and her brother. Phiona heard that a missionary and refugee of Uganda’s civil war named Robert Katende had started a chess program […]