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This African immigrant child of eight years old has already won the game of life by using his wits to get a checkmate.
Tanitoluwa Adewumi, better generally known by his nickname “Tani,” has recently been awarded the title of state chess champion of New York in his age group.
This accomplishment comes despite the fact that he was only introduced to the game of chess a little more than one year ago.
In case that isn’t impressive enough for you, he also managed to become a chess champion despite the fact that he and his family were living in a homeless shelter at the time.
Little Tani, together with his mom and siblings, became a refugee after fleeing Nigeria in order to get away from the violent attacks that were being committed against Christian families like theirs.
This happened just two years ago. They have been staying in a shelter in the city of Manhattan ever since that time.
Tani began her formal education at a neighborhood primary school with the assistance of a local preacher.
Tani’s interest in the game of chess was piqued there when one of his teachers, Russell Makofsky, instructed his class in the fundamentals of the game for the first time.
It just so happened that the teacher was also in charge of leading the school’s chess club. Tani was not able to pay the program fees, so Makofsky waived the expenses and let the youngster join the club despite the fact that she was financially unable to do so.
It was his first time competing in a chess tournament, and he ended up getting the worst score of any student.
Tani prevailed over seventy-three of the most talented young athletes in the state of New York, ranging in grade level from kindergarten to third, and took home the trophy for the state championship this week.
Tani is without a doubt a prodigy because he is the only player in history to win a state championship on his very first attempt.
His current rating is 1,587, which is approximately half as high as the rating of the best player in the world.
Makofsky told the New York Times that it took him one year to get to this level, to climb a mountain and be the greatest of the best without any assistance from his family. “I’ve never seen it.”
The cute young boy, who was only eight years old at the time, used to spend every night on the floor of his local homeless shelter, where he was preparing for the national chess tournament that would take place in May and fantasizing about becoming the youngest Grandmaster in the world.
Tani and his family have been able to move out of the homeless shelter and into their own house thanks to the efforts of his teacher, who started a GoFundMe page a week ago and has since received more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in donations.
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