This 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Will Make You Smile

[mark kennedy]

It answered it.

You want to know what can be done for him and his family? I'd recommend prayer... under the current administration, it doesn't look like he's got one.

Come on TLK, no need to be so pessimistic, I like his chances.

 

[Tigger45]

A very relevant true story.

 

[TLK Valentine]

I didn't know that, in the book and the movie he didn't seem like a fierce competitor, just a real smart kid.

AFAIK, he got out of chess long after the movie was made.

Can't say I blame him. Nobody wants to be the next Bobby Fischer, considering how the first one ended up.

 

[TLK Valentine]

Come on TLK, no need to be so pessimistic, I like his chances.

Hey, I don't make the rules, I just share my unflattering opinions of the man who currently does.

I suspect that Donald's administration can be cajoled/shamed into cutting the kid's family some slack... maybe he can sign a contract to play exclusively on Trump brand chessboards...

 

[FireDragon76]

I think Josh Watzkin's didn't like what single-minded dedication to competition can do to people. If you watched the movie, you get that feeling. He's very much an easygoing type of person and he burnt out on chess competition.

 

[SummerMadness]

Our Chess Champion Has a Home

I wrote in my column last weekend about Tani as a reminder of the principle that talent is universal, even if opportunity is not. A Nigerian refugee who had learned chess only a bit more than a year earlier, he had just defeated kids from elite private schools to win the New York state chess championship for his age group. He lugged a trophy nearly as big as he is back to the homeless shelter.

Now the story gets even better.

After my column about this hard-working family, a GoFundMe drive raised more than $200,000 for Tani, his parents and his brother. A half-dozen readers offered housing — in a couple of cases, palatial quarters. Immigration lawyers offered pro bono assistance to the Adewumis, who are in the country legally and seeking asylum. Three film companies are vying to make movies about Tani.

The Adewumis have decided that they will not spend a cent of the $200,000 GoFundMe money on themselves. They will take out a 10 percent tithe and donate it to their church, which helped them while they were homeless, and the rest will be channeled through a new Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation to help African immigrants who are struggling in the United States the way they were a week ago.

"Anybody who is coming from Africa who is in the position we were in, we will help them," Mr. Adewumi said, acknowledging that details need to be worked out.