SEE WHAT CHESS HAS DONE TO 8-YEAR-OLD TANITOLUWA, A NIGERIAN REFUGEE IN NEW YORK
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Ife Adewole
Tanitoluwa Adewunmi, a 8-year-old boy Nigerian refugee who just won his category at the New York State chess championship, has brought great fortune to his homeless parent who reside in a shelter in Manhattan, New York.
Tanitoluwa’s father, Kayode Adewunmi with his mother Oluwatoyin Adewumi and his older brother fled the northern part of Nigeria in 2017, for the fear of losing any of them to Boko Haram terrorists attack. “I don’t want to lose any loved ones,” His father said.
Tani has he is fondly called, and his family arrived in New York City just a little over a year with the help of a pastor who led them to a homeless shelter.
Little Tani began attending the local elementary school, P.S. 116, which has a part-time chess teacher who taught Tani’s class how to play. He enjoyed the game and urged his mother to allow him join the chess club.
She permitted him and in a little more than a year, extraordinary Tani learned chess, his play has risen steeply month by month, and he now has seven trophies by his bed in the homeless shelter. “I want to be the youngest grandmaster,” Tani said.
Unfortunately for Tani, his parents could not afford the fee but fortunately for him, Russell Makofsky, who oversees the P.S. 116 chess program, waived the fees and a year ago the boy took part in his first tournament with the lowest rating of any participant, 105.
His present rating is 1587 and still rising fast.
Tani has an aggressive style of play, and in the state tournament the coaches, watching from the sidelines, were shocked when he sacrificed a bishop for a lowly pawn. Alarmed, they fed the move into a computer and it agreed with Tani, recognizing that the gambit would improve his position several moves later.
“It’s an inspiring example of how life’s challenges do not define a person,” said Jane Hsu, the principal of P.S. 116, which held a pep rally to celebrate Tani’s victory. Hsu noted that while Tani lacks a home, he has extremely supportive parents dedicated to seeing him succeed.
The newly crowned chess champion for kindergarten through third grade, Tanitoluwa Adewumi deserves an applaud for playing undefeated at the state tournament last weekend, outsmarting children from elite private schools with private chess tutors.
Life is sometimes tough for Tani. His parents say that he once came home from school crying after classmates teased him for being homeless. And at an immigration hearing last fall, he burst into tears when he misunderstood the judge to say that the family would be deported.
“I feel American,” he explained. In fact, the family’s asylum request is dragging on, with the next hearing scheduled for August.
Tani tries to put that out of his mind. He lies on the floor of the shelter and practices chess for hours each evening — now preparing for the elementary national championship in May.
“He is so driven,” said his school chess teacher, Shawn Martinez. “He does 10 times more chess puzzles than the average kid. He just wants to be better.”
Makofsky shook his head wonderingly. “One year to get to this level, to climb a mountain and be the best of the best, without family resources,” he said. “I’ve never seen it.”
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Tani’s mom can’t play chess but takes him every Saturday to a three-hour free practice session in Harlem, and she attends his tournaments. His dad lets Tani use his laptop each evening to practice. And although religion is extremely important to the family, the parents let Tani miss church when necessary to attend a tournament.
“Tani is rich beyond measure,” in the strength, love and support of his family, Makofsky noted.
Tani’s dad has two jobs: He rents a car that he uses to drive for Uber, and he has also become a licensed real estate salesman. Tani’s mom has passed a course to become a home health aide. Meeting them, it’s easy to see where Tani’s scrappy diligence came from.
There is a GoFundMe account set up for the family: https://www.gofundme.com/just-tani
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