Homeless 8-year-old Nigerian wins State Chess Championship
"He smiled every time he did anything on the board or learned something new," coach said.
(Web Desk) - Tanitoluwa Adewumi, an 8-year-old boy won the New York State Scholastic Championship tournament for his age group.
He learnt to play chess at Manhattan and went to Harlem to free practices every Saturday.
His family fled Nigeria over the fears of attacks on Christians in 2017 and now living in a homeless shelter in New York.
His chess coach Shawn Martinez discussed his chess program joining with his parents when he learnt the game early last year at the school.
"He smiled every time he did anything on the board or learned something new," Martinez said. "I could just tell this game was for him."
The club waived his fees off when they got to know about his family’s financial issues through his mother. It all covered his traveling, admission and other fees.
Tani’s father who is a licensed real estate salesman and an Uber driver let him practice chess on his laptop every evening as for his mother, she became a home health aide and took him to free three to four hour chess practice sessions in Harlem every Saturday.
The hard work paid off and now Tani has seven chess trophies and is considered one of the top players in the US for his age group.
Martinez said, "In the next two years, Tani could reach the status of grandmaster, a title awarded to players by the world chess organization, FIDE."
Russell Makofsky, overseer of chess program at Manhattan raised a fund for Tani’s family which already has raised more than $160k for his family.
Tani’s family hopes to move out of the homeless shelter soon as they have applied for asylum.
