Overview
The ""astonishing"" (The New York Times Book Review) and inspirational true story of Phiona Mutesi--a teenage chess prodigy from the slums of Uganda--also a major motion picture starring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo. One day in 2005 while searching for food, nine-year-old Ugandan Phiona Mutesi followed her brother to a dusty veranda where she met Robert Katende. Katende, a war refugee turned missionary, had an improbable dream: to empower kids in the Katwe slum through chess--a game so foreign there is no word for it in their native language. Laying a chess-board in the dirt, Robert began to teach. At first children came for a free bowl of porridge, but many grew to love the game that--like their daily lives--requires persevering against great obstacles. Of these kids, one girl stood out as an immense talent: Phiona. By the age of eleven Phiona was her country's junior champion, and at fifteen, the national champion. Now a Woman Candidate Master--the first female titled player in her country's history--Phiona dreams of becoming a Grandmaster, the most elite level in chess. But to reach that goal, she must grapple with everyday life in one of the world's most unstable countries. The Queen of Katwe is a ""remarkable"" (NPR) and ""riveting"" (New York Post) book that shows how ""Phiona's story transcends the limitations of the chessboard"" (Robert Hess, US Grandmaster).
Full Product Details
Author: Tim Crothers (Itm Technologies Grand Rapids Michigan)
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Imprint: Scribner Book Company
Edition: Media tie-in
Dimensions:
Width: 13.70cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 21.10cm
Weight: 0.227kg
ISBN: 9781501127182
ISBN 10: 1501127187
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 06 September 2016
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.
Reviews
<i>The Queen of Katwe</i> is an extraordinary account of one young woman s exceptional achievement. It is also a lament for this world in which only a tiny number of incredibly fortunate and exceptionally determined children have any chance of escaping the dehumanizing poverty that prevails in Katwe and places like it. --Bill Littlefield, host of Only a Game on National Public Radio
Phiona Mutesi is [a] young star.... An incredible story. --Gary Kasparov, Chess Grandmaster
Author Information
Tim Crothers is a former senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is the author of The Queen of Katwe: One Girl's Triumphant Path to Becoming a Chess Champion and The Man Watching, the biography of University of North Carolina women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance, and coauthor of Hard Work, the autobiography of UNC basketball coach Roy Williams. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife and two children.
