FunMasterMike vs. Tani!
In case you haven't heard by now, the sensational 8-year-old talent Tanitoluwa "Tani" Adewumi is pretty good at chess. Although he's only been playing for about one year, and despite being homeless and a refugee from Nigeria, he recently won the K-3 Championship for all of New York.
After his story was published in the New York Times, Tani's journey has been chronicled in many other newspaper and television stories. Luckily, a fundraising effort raised more than $200,000 for Tani and his family and an anonymous donor paid one year's rent for an apartment in New York City.
They gave most of the money to other African immigrant families through the newly-created Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation.
Tani goes to PS 116 in Manhattan and is quickly becoming a master at interviews too! Photo: FunMasterMike.
Tani visited the Saint Louis Chess Club recently and got to play a host of famous chess players, including new U.S. Women's Champion (and former ChessKid!) Jennifer Yu, world championship runner-up Fabiano Caruana, and the man who won the event, 5-time U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura!
Tani vs. the legendary Hikaru Nakamura. Photo: FunMasterMike.
In fact, he even had a winning tactic against Nakamura which Tani will show you later in a video to be released only on ChessKid! Can't wait that long? Well, here's a preview:
Tani vs. Hikaru Nakamura. Black to play. Is ...Nxe4 a playable tactic here? Tani will let you know soon in his ChessKid video!
Here's Tani on the live broadcast, explaining who is favorite players are. You might be surprised to hear the answers:
And here's Tani's full game video against 17-year-old U.S. Women's Champion Jennifer Yu, who once played in the CONIC tournament on ChessKid!
And finally, Tani played FunMasterMike in two blitz games!
Want to know how the two games went with Tani? You'll have to wait for the full analysis videos, to be released soon.
Good luck to Tani and the ChessKid team will be following your career and your inspirational story as you continue on your journey to grandmaster.
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
- Email: Mike@chess.com
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- Address: PO Box 60400 Palo Alto, CA 94306
Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to more than 85 countries.
