Real life Queen of Katwe helps her US university to championship

godfred akoto

January 12, 2018 9:24 AM

Phiona Mutesi is on scholarship at Northwest University

The real Queen of Katwe is making her mark in the real world of chess after helping her U.S university to a chess championship.

The story of Phiona Mutesi was told on the silver screen in 2016 by Disney in a movie that became one of the hits of the years with Kenyan star, Lupita Nyongo'o and David Oyelewo playing leading roles in the movie.

Now 22 years old and a student, Mutesi helped her school Northwest University win the Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championships. Northwest overcame Oberlin College 4-0 with Mutesi winning three matches.

The Northwest team faced stiff contest en route to victory against chess teams from Columbia University, Arizona State University, Tecnológico Nacional de México, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Oberlin College, and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Mutesi was born in Katwe a Kampala slum. She won the Ugandan Women's Junior Championship three times and represented Uganda at four chess Olympiads and is a Masters Candidate.

Mutesi and her Ugandan teammate, Mukumbya were offered scholarships at Northwest University.

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