An eight-year-old boy, Tanitoluwa Adewumi, has been crowned chess champion for his age group in the US after reportedly fleeing Boko Haram attacks i
Adewumi won the state tournament from kindergarten through third grade, last weekend.
The boy and his family left Nigeria in 2017 to seek asylum in the US. They have been living in a homeless shelter ever since while their application for asylum pends.
His father Kayode drives for Uber and is also a real estate broker.
Tani, as he is fondly called, only began playing chess in 2017 after his family arrived in the US to seek refuge for fear of Boko Haram terrorists.
Tani and his siblings were enrolled in local elementary schools after touching down on US soil.
It did not take long before he discovered the chess club.
Though his parents could not afford the fee for the club, his mother, Oluwatoyin, wrote to the club that her son was eager to participate.
Young Tani practices every night with his father’s laptop.
The club then waived the fees to encourage him to attend a free, three-hour practice session every Saturday.
Tani told the New York Times that he now wants to be the youngest grandmaster ever.
The owner of the chess club in which Tani plays, Russ Makofsy, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the boy’s family.
About $12,000 has been raised while $13,000 is left to hit the $25,000 target.
