( CNN ) -- She grew up in one of the poorest spots on earth . She could n't read or write . As a child , she scrounged for food each day for herself , her mother , and her brother . But a chance encounter with a chess coach turned her into a rising international chess star , the subject of a book -- and the protagonist in a future Disney movie . Ugandan teenager Phiona Mutesi is `` the ultimate underdog , '' her biographer says . Those who work with her believe she 's 16 . But since her birthday is unclear , she might still only be 15 , they say . Her father died from AIDS when Mutesi was around 3 . `` I thought the life I was living , that everyone was living that life , '' the teenager told CNN , describing her childhood in Katwe , a slum in the Ugandan capital of Kampala . Read more : Uganda 's Little League team have a field of dreams . `` I was living a hard life , where I was sleeping on the streets , and you could n't have anything to eat at the streets . So that 's when I decided for my brother to get a cup of porridge . '' Robert Katende , a missionary and refugee of Uganda 's civil war , had started a chess program in Katwe . He offered a bowl of porridge to any child who would show up and learn . `` It teaches you how to assess , how to make decisions , obstructive thinking , forecasts , endurance , problem solving , and looking at challenges as an opportunity in all cases -- and possibly not giving up , '' he told CNN . `` The discipline , the patience ... anything to do with life , you can get it in that game . '' Mutesi did not become a top player overnight . But from the time she first showed up in 2005 , her aptitude was clear . Her talent is `` extraordinary , '' said Katende . Mutesi liked chess , and started training and practicing regularly . `` It took me like a year '' to get very good , she said . She walked about four miles a day to practice -- and to get that precious food . Soon she found herself beating the older girls and boys in the program . Read more : Doctor-turned-kayaker fights malaria in Uganda . Mutesi and her family faced pressure from some people in Uganda who insisted chess was a white man 's game , or at least not something girls should be playing , according to her biographer , Tim Crothers . But in her slum , so few people even knew what chess was that they did n't give her a hard time , Mutesi told CNN . Eventually , she became her country 's champion -- and represented Uganda at international tournaments . In 2009 , she traveled to Sudan . Then , in 2010 , she boarded an airplane to Siberia . When the flight took off , `` I thought that I was maybe in heaven , '' she wrote in a letter to her mother quoted in Crothers ' book . `` I asked God to protect me because who am I to fly to the europlane . '' Mutesi had also never seen ice before . Read more : Marathon man Kiprotich ends Uganda 's long wait for Olympic gold . This year , she played in Istanbul . Mutesi is not one of the world 's top chess players . But she is the first titled female Ugandan player . She has a fighter 's instinct to reach the top level -- and to achieve much more . `` Chess gave me hope , whereby now I 'm having a hope of becoming a doctor and ... a grand master , '' she said . A grant from a program called Sports Outreach has allowed her to go back to school . She 's learning to read and write . Meanwhile , Mutesi is becoming an inspiration to people all over the world . Some learned about her through Crothers ' article for ESPN , which went viral . Others have seen a brief documentary about her on YouTube . Crothers ' book about her , `` The Queen of Katwe , '' was published this fall . `` That she 's from Africa makes her an underdog in the world . The fact that she 's from Uganda makes her sort of an underdog in Africa , because it 's one of the poorer countries in Africa . The fact that she 's in Katwe makes her an underdog in Uganda because it 's the most impoverished slum in the entire country . And then to be a girl in Katwe -- girls are not treated as equals to the boys , '' said Crothers . `` Every hurdle that the world can place in front of her it has placed in front of her . '' The extreme poverty and deprivation in Katwe is hard for many around the world to imagine . Crothers wrote that `` human waste from downtown Kampala is dumped directly into the slum . There is no sanitation . '' Mutesi wakes at 5 a.m. every morning to `` begin a two-hour trek through Katwe to fill a jug with drinkable water , walking through lowland that is often so severely flooded by Uganda 's torrential rains that many residents sleep in hammocks near their ceilings to avoid drowning , '' he wrote . In the country of 34 million people , about one-fourth live below the poverty line , according to the CIA World Factbook . About three-quarters of the men in Uganda are literate ; only 58 % of women are . Mutesi told CNN she 's never heard of Idi Amin , the so-called butcher of Uganda , who helped plunge his country into economic chaos throughout the 1970s . She does know the name Joseph Kony , a brutal Ugandan warlord who was the subject of a viral video earlier this year . Kids talk about him , Mutesi said . `` He was in northern Uganda torturing people and could kidnap children . That 's what I know . '' Chess could prove to be Mutesi 's ticket out of a hard life -- particularly through a project that lies ahead . Disney has optioned the rights to `` The Queen of Katwe , '' and is starting work on a movie , Crothers said . It 's all too much for Mutesi to fathom . `` I feel happy , '' she said when asked about the growing attention . `` I 'm excited . I did n't have hope that one time , one day , I would be like someone who can encourage people , and they start playing chess , '' she told CNN . As her world travels take off , she 's in for more and more culture shock . `` I do n't like New York because there 's too much noise in it , '' the teenager said with a big smile . But while it may be somewhat overwhelming for her , Mutesi 's success at the game she loves is bringing joy to her family . `` Some of them cried . Years back we did n't have hope that ... one day it can happen , '' she said . `` So they are very excited . ''
Phiona Mutesi grew up in a slum in Uganda 's capital . To get a bowl of porridge , she went to a children 's chess club . She now travels the world as a rising chess star . She 's the subject of a book that she is making into a movie .