America has a new chess master. He is only ten years old. His story is remarkable

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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 tournament in Connecticut on May 1, Adewumi won all four of his matches, bumping his chess rating 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 in Manhattan after fleeing religious persecution by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in their home country of Nigeria.

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When his family was unable to pay membership costs for the school's chess program, chess teacher Russell Makofsky waived the fees. Tani went on to win the state championship for kindergarten through third grade in 2019.

"It’s unheard of for any kid, let alone one in a homeless shelter," Makofsky told USA TODAY at the time.

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But Tani isn't done yet. He's set his sights on becoming the youngest grandmaster. According to International Chess Federation, he has two years to accomplish this: Sergey Karjakin, the current record-holder, achieved that status at 12 years and seven months.

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His book, "My Name Is Tani ... and I Believe in Miracles: The Amazing True Story of One Boy's Journey from Refugee to Chess Champion," tells the story of his family fleeing Boko Haram and coming to the U.S., where his father became a dishwasher and Uber driver and his mother cleaned buildings, according to the book's summary.

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