Cover Story / Sports Outreach Institute
The Great Equalizer
The Virginia non-profit Sports Outreach Institute uses chess, among other activities, to improve lives around the world. By JAMAAL ABDUL-ALIM
At the Istanbul Olympiad (left to right): USCF President Ruth Haring, Phiona Mutesi (“The Queen of Katwe”), U.S. Women’s Champion IM Irina Krush, Ugandan Captain Robert Katende.
EFORE HE GOT THE CHANCE TO FLY AWAY from the slums of Uganda to compete in a chess tournament in another part of the world, Ivan Mutesasira had essentially resigned from the game of life. Like many Ugandan youth, he dropped out of primary school because his mother—a street market vendor with four other mouths to feed—couldn’t afford the associated fees. She spoke about getting him reenrolled within a year, but then
B 36 November 2012 | Chess Life
one year became two and, by age 13, his mother sent him to stay with another relative because she couldn’t support all of her children.
Ivan started hanging in the streets. He didn’t see much value in planning for the future.
“Nothing came to my mind that I have to work hard,” Ivan told Chess Life during a recent interview via Skype from Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. “By that time I had given up.”
PHOTO MACAULEY PETERSON
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