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

A famous chess club in a slum in the Ugandan capital which has become the objective of the Queen of the Hollywood film of Katwe still produces champions – but faces a daily struggle to survive.

Directed by chess coach Robert Katende, played by actor David Oyelowo in the Disney film released in 2016, he always thinks that despite financial difficulties, he manages to change the lives of children for the best through failures.

“We use failures as a teaching tool. To identify the potential of learners and guide them towards their destiny,” Katende told the BBC during a visit to his Somchess Academy in Katwe, a poor district of Kampala.

Shortly after graduating as a civil engineer, he began to volunteer in Katwe as a football coach before deciding on failures – starting with a single failure in 2004 and a determination to help.

In one year, Phiona Mutei, nine, who had abandoned the school, joined – and continued to become a prodigy of chess.

She won the title of French French Junior Junior Champion three times, participated in several prestigious International Chess Olympiads and at the age of 16, received the title of woman candidate by the World Federation of Chess.

It was his remarkable story that was told in the film, with Lupita Nyong’o, winner of an Oscar, playing his mother.

Mr. Katende says that his success came from resilience and determination – and shows the truly transformative power of failures.

She also continues to be an inspiration for many players from Mr. Katende, including Patricia Kawuma, 18.

“In addition to winning school scholarships, this game taught me to develop strategies and plan in advance, and this infuses discipline and patience,” said the double junior chess champion to the BBC.

She also represented Uganda in two international tournaments and earned money by winning chess competitions.

Prices and sponsorships allowed him to pay his own school fees as well as those of his brothers and sisters.

Mr. Katende says that more than 4,000 children have followed his programs over the past two decades, some of them ending up becoming doctors, engineers and lawyers.

His big boost came after a book published in 2012 by journalist Tim Crothers about Ms. Mutei drew Disney’s attention.

When the film company decided to move forward and make a film a film, it gave it a unique subsidy of $ 50,000 (£ 36,000).

This allowed him to buy a property in Katwe for the headquarters of his academy and from where he also heads the Robert Katende initiative.

He was able to extend his Katwe chess club to the sessions in Ugandan prisons – and the slums of Kenya and neighboring Rwanda, and those of countries to Angola, Botswana, Cameroon and Malawi.

Currently, more than 2,500 children and around 800 detainees are in its programs, which helps them to develop and make critical decisions, he says.

“Chess is a metaphor for life. There are challenges and surprises everywhere, but if you look carefully, you can find opportunities, you can find your way,” said the 43 -year -old player.

“A bad movement in failures means that you will lose, just like with life.”

There is a movement of the coach, who worked on the film Queen of Katwe as a consultant in senior history and who formed the actors in their chess scenes, did not predict.

The Walt Disney Company made a loss on the film – and it experienced repercussions for its booming chess projects.

He, Ms. Mutei and the mother of the chess champion had received a significant part of all the benefits of Disney – 67%, he says.

But the company told him that after having invested around $ 15 million (11 million pounds sterling) in the tragedy, directed by Mira Nair, he had only made $ 10 million.

“The loss put me in a bad place because people think I have hidden money,” said Katende.

“Many people think that I am a rich Hollywood chess coach after the film, but the hard truth is that we should not yet benefit from its profits.”

However, he says he is not bitter because the film has published his chess programs, attracting local and international partners.

“If Disney had not made the film, we would not be where we are; I do not think we would be known-and many other people came on board to support our philosophy,” he said.

Ms. Mutei’s reputation helped her win a scholarship at the University of the North West in the United States in 2017 and she is now working in Canada as a commercial analyst and is able to support her mother, who has returned to their native village outside Kampala.

But Mr. Katende’s mission faces huge financial challenges because most of his partners have fallen from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We had to reduce the operations and close certain training centers. Before Cavid, I had 14 employees, but now we have eight. I fear that we are no longer dropping staff due to financial constraints,” he said.

Thousands of his players in Uganda must rush for only 120 chess scholarships due to a lack of funds.

The champion of current Uganda junior chess, Jovan Kasozi, 19 – one of Mr. Katende’s protégés – was also affected.

Katende’s failure initiative paid to his schooling and the teenager was able to occasionally the crowdfund of certain sympathizers for additional chess training sessions – but last year, he missed an international tournament because he could not collect $ 400 for his plane ticket.

“But I do not give up failures, the game stimulates my mind and it made me be very good in mathematics. It makes me think like a computer,” the young man told the BBC.

Mr. Katunde is just as optimistic, saying that it could be a long game when it comes to Disney.

“I hope they will contact me if they breaks,” he said, adding that the profits could start to arrive.