Tanitoluwa Adewumi, is a 12-year-old Nigerian granted asylum in the United States of America who rose to stardom at age 8 after winning a New York State chess championship. He beat 73 opponents and clinched the New York State chess championship for his division. At the time he performed this great feat in 2019, he was living with his family in a homeless shelter in Manhattan.
They moved to the USA from Nigeria in 2017, seeking religious asylum after the family, devoutly Christian, was threatened by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
Since Adewumi won the state championship, his accolades have multiplied. At 10, he was named a national master, and his current title is FIDE Master, a prestigious designation awarded by the international chess governing body.
Tanitoluwa Emmanuel was born on September 3, 2010 to Mr. Kayode James Adewumi and Mrs. Oluwatoyin Kuburat Adewumi. Adewumi’s family is devoutly Christian and have been threatened with violence by the Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram. In June 2017, they left Nigeria for the United States and sought religious asylum. Philip Falayi, a pastor in Queens, New York, gave them temporary accommodation, and connected them with the New York City Department of Homeless Services. They were given a place to stay in a homeless shelter in Manhattan. Kayode took work as a dishwasher and as an Uber driver in a rented car, while Oluwatoyin worked as a cleaner. Tanitoluwa enrolled in elementary school. In October 2022, Adewumi and his family were granted asylum in the United States. This status allowed the family to remain in the US permanently and allowed Adewumi to travel internationally to compete in chess tournaments.
In 2019, Adewumi competed in the 52nd Annual New York State Scholastic Championships (kindergarten-3rd grade division) in Saratoga Springs, New York. He won the event outright with a five wins, one draw, no losses. His style of play is aggressive. The story of his winning the New York Scholastics was reported by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, and rapidly attracted national and international attention both inside and outside the chess world. Garry Kasparov, former World Chess Champion, praised this achievement by a refugee immigrant.
Bill Clinton, former U.S. president, invited him to visit him in his office in Harlem, New York, and he did. Abike Dabiri, Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, called him “a pride to the nation”.
He later visited the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri, where the U.S. Chess Championship was then in progress, and played several friendly blitz games, with opponents including Hikaru Nakamura (GM, five-time U.S. Chess Champion), Jennifer Yu (WGM, 2019 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion), and Fabiano Caruana (GM and 2018 World Chess Championship challenger). He was interviewed by Maurice Ashley, the world’s first Black GM.
His coaches set up a site shortly after the New York competition, with the target of raising $50,000 for the family by crowd funding. It raised $254,000 in ten days. Benefactors also offered non-monetary help; including accommodation, a car, academic scholarships, chess books, and pro bono assistance by immigration lawyers with their asylum application. They accepted one of the more modest offers of accommodation, declined the scholarship offers out of loyalty to give one-tenth of the donated money as a tithe to the church which had helped them, and put the rest into a trust called the Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation to help other children in similar circumstances.
