By Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2020

First published in Literary Yard, April 3, 2021

Transporting her school-aged
brothers and sisters
from lives selling maize
in the slums of Kampala, Uganda
to lives full of hope and achievement;

Ending a life of hardship and sorrow for her
widowed mother,
rescuing her from the travails of
collapsed homes, robberies and evictions;

Enduring bouts with malaria and
the unspeakable sorrow of losing
her father to AIDS at age 3
and her beloved eldest sister
to an unknown disease;

Braving nights sleeping on the tin
roof of her 10 by 10 foot home
to escape drowning from floods
that tore through their ghetto with
deadly torrents of raw sewage;

This bright but timid young girl
who came to be known as the “Queen of Katwe”  
transformed the lives of her entire family,
uplifted the Katwe slums of Kampala
and inspired millions of people across the world;

Following her older brother,
hoping to find her next meal,
Phiona Mutesi fixed her gaze
upon black and white chess pieces that
silent, smiling children moved upon
a flat board she had never seen before,
finding beauty in the pieces and
yearning to experience
the quiet joy of the children;

Welcomed to join them by chess instructor, Robert Katende,
she accepted the invitation from
this kind Ugandan missionary and local football star,
who treated her with fatherly compassion,
coaching and mentoring her and
other poverty-stricken youth
in lessons of life and chess;

Becoming the junior womens’ national champion by the age of eleven
and leading Uganda to an upset victory in an
international chess tournament in Sudan by age thirteen;

Representing Uganda
in four international Chess Olympiads,
three times winning the Ugandan Womens’ Junior Chess Championship and
being crowned Uganda’s National Junior Chess Champion;

Becoming the first
Ugandan female to  ever to earn a chess title:
the title of Woman Candidate Master,
at the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul;

Phiona has brought tremendous honor to
Katwe, Kampala and all of Uganda,
leading to joyous celebrations,
the founding of Phiona Mutesi Chess Clubs and
the planting of chess
in the hearts and minds of thousands of
schoolboys and girls worldwide;

Her prodigious achievements, called “awe-inspiring”
by journalists covering the world of chess, have
led to her life story being told in a 2012 book and
dramatically portrayed in Disney’s 2016 film: Queen of Katwe;

Using royalties from this book and film
to transform the lives of her family,
Phiona has focused on inspiring others
throughout Uganda and beyond
through motivational speaking;

Going far beyond her original goal of
“finding the safe square” in life through chess,
Phiona has “paid forward” to millions of adoring fans
 the compassion of a coach and
love of Christ that uplifted her.