The Queen of Katwe: Phiona Mutesi

Photo: aphrodite-in-nyc / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

In September 2010, at the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, a 14-year-old girl from Uganda sat down with the black pieces in round 9. Thirty-six moves later, the white king stood on h4, and it was checkmate.

Her name was Phiona Mutesi. Here is her story, that game, and five more of her games you can study.

Growing Up in Katwe

Phiona Mutesi was born on March 28, 1996, in Kampala, Uganda. She grew up in Katwe, the largest of Kampala's eight slums. When she was about three, her father died of AIDS, and later her older sister, Julia, died too. At nine she had to leave school, because her family could no longer pay for it. She sold maize in a street market.

One day she followed her brother to an after-school program run by Sports Outreach, a Christian sports mission. The coach there, Robert Katende, taught chess, and that is where she began to play.

• By 2012 she had won the Ugandan Women's Junior Championship three times.
• In 2010, at 14, she played for Uganda at the Women's Chess Olympiad, a team event where countries play each other.
• At that Olympiad the journalist Tim Crothers noticed her and wrote about her for ESPN The Magazine.

The Game: Haregeweyn Abera Alemu vs. Phiona Mutesi, 2010

Haregeweyn Abera Alemu 0-1 Phiona Mutesi Women's Chess Olympiad, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia · Round 9 · September 30, 2010 White: Haregeweyn Abera Alemu · Black: Phiona Mutesi, Uganda, age 14

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.h3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bc4 h6 6.d3 O-O 7.O-O Nc6 8.Be3 Be6 9.Bxe6 fxe6 10.Qe2 d5 11.exd5 exd5 12.d4 Bd6 13.Rad1 exd4 14.Nxd4 Nxd4 15.Rxd4 c5 16.Rdd1 d4

A calm opening. For the first 16 moves our Stockfish 16 check rates the game close to level. Now Black has a pawn on d4, in the middle of the board.

17.Nb5 Ne4 18.Nxd6 Nxd6 19.Bc1 Qf6 20.b3 Rae8 21.Qg4 Re7 22.Qg3 Ne4 23.Qd3 Nc3

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After 23...Nc3, White to move. The black knight on c3 attacks the rook on d1 and the pawn on a2. It is protected by the pawn on d4, and no white pawn can ever chase it away. Our engine rates Black about two and a half pawns ahead.

Analyze this position in the full game

A square like c3, where your piece is protected and no enemy pawn can attack it, is called an outpost. A knight on an outpost deep in the enemy position is very strong.

Rooks Join the Attack

24.Rd2 b6 25.a4 Kh8 26.f3 Rfe8 27.Bb2 Re3

Now both black rooks are on the e-file, and one has reached e3. It attacks the white queen on d3 and the pawn on f3.

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After 27...Re3, White to move. The rook on e3 attacks the queen and the pawn on f3. The pawn on d4 and the rook on e8 support it. Our engine rates Black more than five pawns ahead.

Analyze this position in the full game

28.Qc4 Ne2+ 29.Kh2 Qf4+ 30.Kh1 Ng3+ 31.Kg1 Nxf1

Three checks in a row, and the knight takes the rook on f1.

32.Kxf1

Our engine preferred 32.Qxf1. After 32.Kxf1, the white king is in the open, and our engine finds a forced checkmate for Black.

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After 32.Kxf1, Black to move. The white king has lost its rook and stands on f1. Our engine finds a forced checkmate for Black.

Analyze this position in the full game

The Checkmate

32...Re1+ 33.Kf2 Qxd2+ 34.Kg3 Rg1 35.Kh4 Qf4+ 36.g4 Qg5#

The king runs from f1 to h4, and the queen gives checkmate on g5.

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Final position after 36...Qg5, checkmate. The queen on g5 checks the king on h4. The rook on g1 covers g3, the queen covers h5, and the pawn on h6 protects the queen, so the king cannot take it.

Analyze this position in the full game

Five More Mutesi Games to Study

These five games are from the Olympiads of 2010 and 2012, when she was 14 to 16. At the 2012 Olympiad in Istanbul she scored 50% from nine games and earned the title of Woman Candidate Master. Set each one up on a board, or play through it on your computer, and look for the idea in the note. The engine numbers come from our own Stockfish 16, searching to depth 16.

• Vania Fausto Da Vilhete vs. Phiona Mutesi, Olympiad, Khanty-Mansiysk, October 3, 2010 (½-½). Against a player rated 1723. A long rook endgame. Watch the black king walk into the middle with 33...Ke5 and take a pawn with 37...Kxd5. Our engine rates Black better near the end, but the game was drawn.
• Phiona Mutesi vs. Cydel Terubea, Olympiad, Istanbul, August 30, 2012 (1-0). Our engine rates White better for almost the whole game. Look at 30.Nd7. The knight attacks both black rooks, on b8 and f8. That is a fork. After 30...Qxd7 31.Bxb8, White has won a rook.
• Nadine Kremer vs. Phiona Mutesi, Olympiad, Istanbul, August 29, 2012 (½-½). Against a player rated 1788. Our engine rates White more than three pawns ahead around move 31, but Mutesi keeps defending. After 36.Qe8, which our engine rates as a mistake, the game becomes level, and it ends in a draw after Black gives the same rook checks again and again.
• Yeonhee Cho vs. Phiona Mutesi, Olympiad, Istanbul, September 6, 2012 (0-1). Against a player rated 1542. A wild game where both sides make big mistakes. After 22.Qe2, which our engine rates as a mistake, 22...Rf3 and 23...Rxe3 break through, and the game ends with 25...Qxg2, checkmate.
• Zeleke Azeb Menassie vs. Phiona Mutesi, Olympiad, Istanbul, September 7, 2012 (0-1). After 13.Ne2, which our engine rates as a mistake, Black strikes with 13...Nxf3+ and 14...Rxf3. Then 15...Rxg3+ gives up a rook for a knight, and 16...Bxe3+ takes a bishop with check. Our engine rates Black better from move 13 to the end.

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Cho vs. Mutesi, Istanbul 2012, final position after 25...Qxg2, checkmate. The queen on g2 checks the king on f1, and the bishop on e4 protects the queen.

Analyze this positionReview the full game

Queen of Katwe

In 2012 Mutesi and her teammate Ivy Amoko became the first titled female players in Ugandan chess history. That year she also became the first girl to win the open section of Uganda's National Junior Championship. She played for Uganda again at the Olympiads of 2014 and 2016.

Her story became a book, The Queen of Katwe, by Tim Crothers, in 2012, and a Disney film, Queen of Katwe, in 2016. She went on to study at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, graduating in 2021 with a degree in business administration.

A Habit to Practice

Set up the position after 23...Nc3 and look at the knight. Which white pieces can take it? Which white pawns could ever attack it? Then look at your own games for squares like that, and try to put a knight there.