THERE ARE plenty of reasons why Tanitoluwa Adewumi captured the world’s attention in March 2019 after winning the New York State chess championship in his age group. Nine-year-old “Tani” was living in a Manhattan homeless shelter. And he was a refugee. Tani’s family had fled northern Nigeria and sought asylum in America in 2017 after being threatened by Boko Haram, a jihadist group. Oh, one more thing: when Tani took home the state championship trophy, he had been playing for only a year.
But the story doesn’t end there. Tani is getting better. Chess players are ranked by the United States Chess Federation and the World Chess Federation using the Elo system. Named after Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor and chess enthusiast, Elo ratings are based on a player’s performance in matches, and the skill level of their opponents, according to a mathematical formula. A beginner typically scores 800, an average player 1500 and a professional 2200.
Tani’s following could grow in the coming months. With conventional sport cancelled, chess, which can be played online, has enjoyed a boost in popularity. Chess.com, a website devoted to the sport, has seen its traffic more than double in the past few months. On Twitch, a video-streaming platform where users watch each other play video games, Hikaru Nakamura, an American “super-grandmaster” with a rating of 2,827, regularly draws audiences in the tens of thousands.
Whether Tani will one day join the ranks of the chess elite is hard to say. His dream is to become the world’s youngest grandmaster. But to achieve that status he must score three strong finishes in ultra-competitive tournaments, which were limited even before the pandemic. The current record-holder, Sergey Karjakin, a “super-grandmaster” widely considered among the best in the world, reached the milestone at 12 years and 7 months.
I will love to see him play alexandravbotez sometime when his game is strong enough to play the GMs.
Is chess a sport? Just asking......
Let’s go Tani!
This reminds me: jblumgart nmarzano darrylcmurphy make a move, my dudes
and in chess without castling ? Without en passant ? For my part: Pawn to eighth row becomes either lost bishop of that square ( B or W ) or, if that player's Queen is still in play, a one-space-ONLY-omni-directional-moving Reine out of respect for chess history as innovation ?
TelegraphChess Sadly my chess rating has gone down, lack of sleep and constant worry not conducive to spotting elementary traps...
GMHikaru
Trying to improve my stats in candyland rn. chesscom
Bong cloud.....naka naka naka
This Great CHESS Books Collection helped me to understand Russian chess tactics and secret method of chess training. So I highly recommend you to get it here
FIDE_chess My chess book sales are up slightly. Not into livestreaming but I hear it's growing.
FIDE_chess GMHikaru
Fayke Neus
The boom caused me to start learning chess. A revolution caused by xQc and GMHikaru
GMHikaru FTW!
I prefer The Ones Floating In The Water. Kosher Something. TeamCoco madflavor
He appeared on Billions too?
More people at home leads to unexpected boost in online chess.
Every night on twitch 🙂
Good to know
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