Tanitoluwa Adewumi overcomes homelessness to become chess master
His family has gotten young Adewumi a coach to help him reach his goal of becoming youngest chess grandmaster ever.
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Tanitoluwa Adewumi, at 10 years old, has become America’s newest national chess master, the 28th youngest person to achieve the status, according to the U.S. Chess Federation.
However, one of the most inspirational aspects of Adewumi’s story is that he once lived in a homeless shelter. His family left northern Nigeria in 2017 and, upon moving to New York, lived in the Manhattan-based shelter, and the boy learned to play chess at school.
First Published: 9:53 AM PDT, May 13, 2021
Tanitoluwa Tani Adewumi told NPR he practices chess every day after school for 10 to 11 hours.
A 10-year-old Nigerian refugee who was one homeless in New York City, has become one of the youngest chess players crowned national champion, People reported.
On May 1, Tanitoluwa Tani Adewumi became the 28th youngest person in the country to win the title, telling NPR, “I was very happy that I won and that I got the title. I really love that I finally got it.
He told the radio station that he plans on becoming the world’s youngest grand master of the game. Adewumi turns 11 this summer and if he secures the grand master honor in the next two years, he will beat out Russian Sergey Karjakin, who won it when he was 12 years and 7 months old in 2002.
Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a 10-year-old in New York, just became the country s newest national chess master.
At the Fairfield County Chess Club Championship tournament in Connecticut on May 1, Adewumi won all four of his matches, bumping his chess rating up to 2223 and making him the 28th youngest person to become a chess master, according to US Chess. I was very happy that I won and that I got the title, he says, I really love that I finally got it. Finally is after about three years the amount of time that Adewumi has been playing chess. When he started, Adewumi and his family were living in a homeless shelter in Manhattan after fleeing religious persecution by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in their home country of Nigeria.
Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a once-homeless Christian refugee in New York City who fled persecution with his family from Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, is now America’s newest national chess master at the age of 10. And he and his family are thanking God for the achievement.