10-year-old Tanitoluwa Adewumi, who is also known as Tani, is officially a Chess National Master and he did that at just 10.
Yes, just 10.
He currently has a rating of 2223.
He is the 28th youngest person ever to achieve the tittle.
The best thing about this is that Tani was only introduced to the game of Chess a couple of years ago when he was living with his family in a homeless shelter.
In 2017, Tani, his parents, and brother became refugees after fleeing Nigeria to escape violent attacks on Christian families like theirs.
They resided in a shelter in Manhattan.
Thanks to a local pastor, Tani started to attend a local elementary school, where Russell Makofsky, a teacher of his, taught his class how to play chess.
After being introduced to the board game, he just fell in love with it.
The best thing about this is that the teacher was also a member of the chess club at the school.
Because Tani had no money to pay for the program fees, Makofsky waived the costs and welcomed the youngster into the club.
Like what we say, success does not come easy.
When he competed in his first chess tournament, he got the lowest score of any student, but this year, he took home the state championship trophy.
He beat 73 of New York’s best players in grades K-3.
Tani is the first every kid to win a state championship on his first try.
According to a report, the 10-year-old boy was spending every single night on the floor to practice for the national chess championship.
He dreamt of becoming the world’s youngest Grandmaster.
That’s not even the best part of this story.
After his story went viral, a GoFundMe page was set up and over $250,000 was raised.
The money helped get Tani and his family out of the shelter and into a home of their own in Connecticut, USA.
Such an amazing and inspiring story.