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In September of 2010 she traveled to Siberia, just her second time ever on an airplane, to compete in the Chess Olympiad, the world’s most prestigious team chess event. By the age of 11 Phiona was her country’s junior chess champion and at 15, her country’s national champion. Robert introduced Phiona to the game of chess and soon recognized her immense talent. One day in 2005, while searching for food, nine-year-old Phiona followed her brother to a dusty veranda where she met Robert Katende, another child of the Ugandan slums, who works for an American organization that offers relief and religion through sports. Phiona Mutesi is also one of the best chess players in the world. Phiona has been in and out of school her whole life because her mother cannot afford it, so she is only now learning to read and write.
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Phiona Mutesi sleeps in a decrepit shack with her mother and four siblings and struggles to find a single meal each day. Based on a popular ESPN Magazine article - optioned by Disney films, a finalist for a National Magazine Award and chosen by Dave Eggers for inclusion in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011 - the astonishing true story of Phiona Mutesi, a teenager from the slums of Kampala, Uganda, who - inspired by an unlikely mentor, a war refugee turned missionary - becomes an international chess champion.