If it were not for Phiona's chess teacher, who had the boundless enthusiasm, optimism and willingness to extend his benevolence beyond his immediate family, Phiona would undoubtedly be subjected to dire poverty and hopeless existence! I like the fact that the movie shows chess not only to be a way out of poverty (in having new possibilities and avenues to explore,) but also how it can transform th e human spirit (both in good and bad ways - in realizing how chess opens up a realm of beauty to us and also how chess can make us think that we are something better than what we really are!) Kudos to Disney for wanting to produce this movie! It helps us not only to appreciate with what other people in other parts of the world have to cope, but it also shows us how a generous spirit (portrayed by David Oyelowo) can make a difference, even when it can cost much in personal comfort and gain. The hardest thing to watch in the movie is the grinding poverty and how this poverty swallows up entire families. I saw a couple of smothered mates and forks which were accurately depicted. The actual chess positions in the movie are very accurate. Nikita Pearl Waligwa, the young actress seen in the 2016 Disney film, Queen of Katwe, has died, according to the Ugandan newspaper The Daily Monitor.Waligwa, who was diagnosed with a brain. As a chessplayer, I wanted to find out more about Phiona Mutesi, the teenager who represented her country Uganda in the Chess Olympics in Russia. This article appears in our 2017 Winter issue, Chaos.Subscribe today Disney rarely challenges traditional representations of race and gender, but it does so in the remarkable Queen of Katwe.Based on a biographical sports essay published in ESPN The Magazine, which later became a book, this feel-good movie deserves applause.