Quotes from Tim Crothers

Phiona Mutesi is the ultimate underdog. To be African is to be an underdog in the world. To be Ugandan is to be an underdog in Africa. To be from Katwe is to be an underdog in Uganda. To be a girl is to be an underdog in Katwe. When

when you love something with all your heart, it brings many other things.

Mentally most of us are in between where we would like to be and where we are.

For the most part, the girls of Katwe need to be told who these people are and once they learn, they want to be just like them. For Phiona Mutesi and the other teenage girls of Katwe, there are no true female role models to follow. Nothing realistic. Nothing attainable. No solid businesswoman or stable homemaker. There is no in-between for Phiona to grab onto during a very impressionable time in her life, a time when she needs a lot of guidance about becoming an adult.

Plenty of Ugandan men believe that women shouldn't even compete in sports.

For many years Ugandan society was not positive about women in sport because they thought sport is masculine and while top sportswomen might be admired as great athletes, they were not admired as great family people because they were off the expected road,

In chess, once you're scared, it's hard to get a good result." Still,

If I had killed myself I would not have experienced the fun of scoring those goals. I think it was wise not to do what I was planning.'" Soccer

It's all about what she knows and not who she is or where she comes from." As

She may not have enough money to visit the canteen, but they look at her as though she is a hero.

You can ask yourself, 'Why would so many people experience this kind of miserable place and not vacate?' Because it is a place full of people with nowhere else to go." •

Katwe has no street signs. No addresses. It is a maze of rutted alleys and dilapidated shacks. It is a place where time is measured by where your shadow hits the ground. There are no clocks. No calendars. Because it lies just a few degrees from the equator, Katwe has no seasons, which adds to the repetitive, almost listless, nature of daily life. Every day is just like the next. Survival in Katwe depends on courage and determination as well as guile and luck.

I feel so comfortable when I am at the board. Even when I lose, I don't want to leave the board.