A Ugandan student who played a memorable role in a 2016 Disney film about a local chess prodigy has died at the age of 15. Nikita Pearl Waligwa died on Saturday at a hospital near the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The cause was a brain tumour, according to the girls’ secondary school she had attended since 2018. Local media reported that Nikita had been in and out of hospital with a recurring brain tumour and had previously received treatment, including surgery, in India. Queen Of Katwe follows the rise of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi as a chess player amid grinding poverty in the Kampala slum of Katwe, with her single mother barely able to support her and her two siblings.

Source: Irish Independent February 16, 2020 16:18 UTC