Meet America's Newest Chess Master, 10-Year-Old Tanitoluwa Adewumi

Meet America’s Newest Chess(CHes) Master, 10-Year-Old Tanitoluwa(tə) Adewumi

By Mary Louise Kelly

Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a 10-year-old in New York, just became the country’s newest national chess master.

At the Fairfield County Chess Club Championship(ˈCHampēənˌSHip) tournament(ˈtərnəmənt) in Connecticut(kəˈnedəkət) on May 1, Adewumi won all four of his matches, bumping(bəmp) his chess rating(ˈrādiNG) up to 2223 and making him the 28th youngest person to become a chess master, according to US Chess.

“I was very happy that I won and that I got the title,” he says, “I really love that I finally got it.”

“Finally” is after about three years — the amount of time that Adewumi has been playing chess. When he started, Adewumi and his family were living in a homeless shelter(ˈSHeltər) in Manhattan after fleeing religious(rəˈlijəs) persecution(ˌpərsəˈkyo͞oSH(ə)n) by the Islamist(ˈizlaməst) militant(ˈmiləd(ə)nt) group Boko Haram(ˈherəm) in their home country of Nigeria(ˌnīˈjirēə).

Now, Adewumi practices chess “every day” after school for “10, 11 hours” — and still manages to get some sleep.

His hours of practice have paid off. As a chess player, he describes himself as a bit of an every man, “aggressive(əˈɡresiv)” or “calm(kä(l)m)” when he needs to be, and always thinking ahead.

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https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/995936257/meet-americas-newest-chess-master-10-year-old-tanitoluwa-adewumi