Homeless Refugee to Chess Champion

Available for over a year

Fahim was eight years old when he was forced to flee Bangladesh with his father. Despite being classed as an illegal immigrant in France, Fahim's talent for chess was spotted by one of the country's top chess coaches, Xavier Parmentier. He went on to become France's under-12 chess champion. The book about his extraordinary life is called A King in Hiding. Afghan teacher Azizullah Royesh has faced death threats, the Soviet invasion and the Taliban. Now he has been nominated for a prestigious international award - the Global Teacher Prize. Yasmina Khadra is a well-known Algerian novelist. But her name disguises her true identity. In real life the writer is a male former army officer who took on a female pen name to escape military censorship. The media thought they had found a new female perspective on the Arab world, only for his true identity to be revealed when he left the army. Indhuja Pillai made headlines when her parents' attempt to find her a husband spectacularly backfired. Their bland, inaccurate profile prompted her to launch her own truthful and provocative one that said she looked dorky, would never grow her hair long and was definitely not marriage material. (Photo: Fahim with a chess set. Credit: Francesca Mantovani)