TOLEDO – Tani Adewumi was introduced to chess at age 7 by his older brother, Austine Adewumi, when their family lived in a homeless shelter in New York City.
One year later, Adewumi won the K-3 New York State chess championship. Sound implausible?
Now 14, Adewumi is a high school freshman and plays guard on the basketball team. He is rated one of the best young chess players in the world, with an international rating of 2362 and a rating of 2436 with the U.S. Chess Federation; it’s a rating high enough to earn him National Master (NM) status.
To put those ratings in perspective, a chess Grand Master (GM) typically has an FIDE rating of at least 2500. FIDE is the governing body for international chess. To become a GM, a player must also achieve three favorable tournament results, called norms. Adewumi is determined to become a GM sooner than later.
He said chess has always captivated him because “it’s so creative and keeps giving you new ideas.
“It’s infinite, the amount of ideas and creativity,” said Adewumi, known for his aggressive style of play. “Chess is creative. That’s why I like it. There are an infinite amount of (game) openings – everything about chess is pretty good.”
Adewumi was the guest speaker on Feb. 15 at the Strategic Interplay Chess Tournament at Toledo Museum of Art. The tournament was sponsored by TMA, Toledo Public Schools, and Warren and Yolanda Woodberry of the Woodberry Park Chess Club at Jones Leadership Academy in Toledo.
Adewumi, Austine Adewumi, 20, and their parents, Oluwatoyin and Kayode Adewumi, immigrated to the United States from Nigeria in 2017. They were forced to flee their homeland due to religious persecution and lived in a shelter in New York for some time.
The family still lives in Manhattan, where the family patriarch, Kayode Adewumi, is now a licensed real estate salesperson.
Prior to the start of the Strategic Interplay tournament, Tani Adewumi was the guest in a 45-minute Q&A session with moderator Lanisa Kitchiner, curator of African Art at the TMA. Approximately 150 chess fans, children and adults, attended the session in the museum’s Little Theater to meet and talk with the young prodigy.
Kayode Adewumi said he and his wife realized just how prodigiously gifted Tani Adewumi was at chess when, as an 8-year-old, he won the K-3 New York state title in Saratoga Springs.
“He signed up to play chess at school in 2019, and he loved chess,” said his father. “As parents, we encouraged him. He loved it with a passion. When he was 9 or 10, he practiced seven to eight hours a day. He learned chess and became a champion in one year.”
Kayode Adewumi said he is most proud of his youngest son’s consistency.
“Some kids may lose focus, but I love his consistency,” he said. “He knows what to do, with little advice from others.”
Tani Adewumi, who has has written four books, said he plays chess two to three hours a day, seven days a week. He has a chess coach whom he said he has never beaten.
Tani Adewumi has had countless stories written about him by a myriad of publications, including the New York Times, and has appeared many times on local and national television. Former president Bill Clinton and chess legend Garry Kasparov have raved about him.
At age 11, on live TV, Tani Adewumi said that “chess just came to me – just like a tennis ball comes to a racket.” He practices on a popular internet chess site, chess.com, every day and said he prefers to play other competitors online instead of playing against the computer.
“I’m always thinking about chess,” said Tani Adewumi, an honors student who does not have a cell phone. “School and education are really important. After I come back home from school, everything about chess is on my mind.”
During the Q&A session, a young chess fan asked him what goes through his mind when he loses.
“I can get mad at myself,” he admitted, “but it’s also a learning experience. You get stronger every game you play.”
Tani Adewumi has proven to be a tremendous chess ambassador, and he relishes the support he gets from his family.
“A support system is very crucial,” he said. “It gets you in the right mode and helps you relax and focus. You want to feel good after every single game.”
