Tanitoluwa Adewumi from Master to become Grandmaster Chess. Tanitoluwa Adewumi fled with his family from Northern Nigeria to the United States in 2017 due to terrorist attacks. Despite this disruption to his life, Tani had amazed the world of Chess by winning the New York State Chess Championship a year later at only age 8.
Currently at age 12, Tanitoluwa now holds a rating of 2230 and working towards becoming the youngest grandmaster Chess player ever with Abhimanyu Mishra currently holding the title. Tanitoluwa has already made an incredible journey to the United States and set a unique achievement in winning the New York State Chess Championship just one year after his escape from northern Nigeria. And yet, the master of chess is still dreaming bigger – grandmaster of course! To become grandmaster is no small feat, as it requires reaching the top tenth of a percent for players worldwide.
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With his current rating, Tanitoluwa is getting closer to achieving grandmaster each day. Nonetheless, Tanitoluwa–as an asylum seeker–faces added difficulties that most other grandmaster hopefuls do not face. International travel for competing is simply not possible without extra effort from the refugee community. Tanitoluwa’s story has motivated countless despite all obstacles that stand in his way, but there’s still more to be done in order for him to reach grandmaster level.
