Queen of Katwe’s gambit still in play for Uganda’s slum chess players

A well-known chess membership in a slum of Uganda’s capital that grew to become the main focus of the Hollywood film Queen of Katwe remains to be producing champions – however faces a each day wrestle to outlive.

Run by chess coach Robert Katende, performed by actor David Oyelowo within the Disney movie launched in 2016, he nonetheless believes that regardless of monetary struggles he’s managing to alter kids’s lives for the higher by chess.

“We use chess as a instructing device. To establish the potential of the learners and information them to their future,” Mr Katende informed the BBC on a go to to his SomChess Academy in Katwe, a poor neighbourhood of Kampala.

Shortly after graduating as a civil engineer, he first started volunteering in Katwe as a soccer coach earlier than deciding on chess – beginning up with a single chessboard in 2004 and a willpower to assist.

Inside a 12 months nine-year-old Phiona Mutesi, who had dropped out of faculty, joined up – and went on to turn out to be a chess prodigy.

She took the title of nationwide girls’s junior champion thrice, competed in a number of prestigious worldwide chess Olympiads and by the age of 16 was given the title Girl Candidate Grasp by the World Chess Federation.

It was her outstanding story that was informed within the movie, with Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o enjoying her mom.

Mr Katende says her success got here from resilience and willpower – and reveals the actually transformative energy of chess.

She additionally continues to be an inspiration for a lot of of Mr Katende’s gamers, together with 18-year-old Patricia Kawuma.

“Other than profitable college scholarships, this recreation has taught me how you can strategise and plan forward, and it instils self-discipline and persistence,” the two-time nationwide junior chess champion informed the BBC.

She has additionally represented Uganda in two worldwide tournaments and has earned cash by profitable chess competitions.

Prize cash and sponsorships have enabled her to pay for her personal college charges in addition to these of her siblings.

Mr Katende says greater than 4,000 kids have gone by his programmes over the past twenty years, with a few of them ending up turning into docs, engineers and legal professionals.

His large enhance got here after a guide revealed in 2012 by journalist Tim Crothers about Ms Mutesi caught the attention of Disney.

When the movie firm determined to go forward and make the guide right into a film, it gave him a one-time grant of $50,000 (£36,000).

This allowed him purchase a property in Katwe to headquarter his academy and from the place he additionally runs the Robert Katende Initiative.

He was in a position to prolong his chess membership from Katwe to periods inside Ugandan prisons – and to slums in neighbouring Kenya and Rwanda, and people in nations so far as Angola, Botswana, Cameroon and Malawi.

At the moment, greater than 2,500 kids and about 800 inmates are in his programmes, which assist them to develop and make vital choices, he says.

“Chess is a metaphor for all times. There are challenges and surprises in all places however when you look carefully you could find alternatives, you could find your manner by,” the 43-year-old informed me.

“A foul transfer in chess means you’ll lose, simply the identical with life.”

There may be one transfer the coach, who labored on the Queen of Katwe movie as a senior story guide and who skilled the actors of their chess scenes, didn’t predict.

The Walt Disney Firm made a loss on the movie – and this has had repercussions for his burgeoning chess initiatives.

He, Ms Mutesi and the chess champion’s mom had been promised a large share of any Disney income – 67%, he says.

However he was informed by the company that after investing about $15m (£11m) into the drama, directed by Mira Nair, it had solely made again $10m.

“The loss put me in a foul spot as a result of folks assume that I’ve hidden some cash,” Mr Katende stated.

“Many individuals assume I am a rich Hollywood chess coach after the movie however the onerous reality is that we’re but to profit from its income.”

Nonetheless, he says he’s not bitter because the movie publicised his chess programmes, attracting each native and worldwide companions.

“If Disney had not accomplished the movie, we would not be the place we’re; I do not assume we’d be recognized – and lots of different folks have come on board to help our philosophy,” he stated.

Ms Mutesi’s fame helped her win a scholarship to Northwest College within the US in 2017 and he or she now works in Canada as a enterprise analyst and is ready to help her mom, who has moved again to their house village outdoors Kampala.

However Mr Katende’s mission faces big monetary challenges as most of his companions have fallen off for the reason that coronavirus pandemic.

“We needed to scale down operations and shut down some coaching centres. Earlier than Covid I had 14 employees, however now we’ve eight. I concern we’d let go of extra employees on account of monetary constraints,” he stated.

Hundreds of his gamers in Uganda must scramble for under 120 chess boards on account of an absence of funds.

Uganda’s present junior chess champion, 19-year-old Jovan Kasozi – one in every of Mr Katende’s protégés – has additionally been hit.

The Katende chess initiative pays in the direction of his education and {the teenager} has been in a position to often crowdfund from some effectively wishers for additional chess coaching periods – however final 12 months he missed out a global match as a result of he couldn’t elevate $400 for his air ticket.

“However I am not giving up on chess, the sport stimulates my thoughts and it has made me to be superb at arithmetic. It makes me assume like a pc,” the younger man informed the BBC.

Mr Katunde is equally upbeat, saying that it might be a protracted recreation with regards to Disney.

“Hopefully they may attain out to me in the event that they break even,” he stated, including that then the income may begin coming in.