Tanitoluwa Adewumi

Early life Tanitoluwa is the son of Kayode James Adewumi (born June 24, 1976, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria) and Oluwatoyin Kuburat Adewumi (born June 16, 1981, Ado Ekiti). He has a brother who is seven years older.

Chess career

Shawn Martinez, the head chess coach at P.S. 116, introduced students to the game. Tanitoluwa immediately took to it and wanted to join a club run by 1700-rated coach Russell Makofsky. That would have been expensive; the $330 fee He became a FIDE Master, having surpassed a FIDE rating of 2300 in November 2021.

In April 2022, he scored 7/9 in the New York Spring Invitational Norm event, earning his first norm. In July 2022, he scored 7/9 in the New York Summer Invitational, winning the IM C event and earning his second IM norm. In November 2022 he earned a third IM norm, scoring 5.5/9 at the 2022 New York Fall Invitational in the GM B event. Due to a rule change from FIDE in early 2022, Adewumi still needed an additional norm from an individual Swiss tournament (as well as reaching 2400 Elo) to be granted the IM title. In February 2024, he earned a fourth IM norm, scoring 5.5/9 at the 2024 Southwest Class Championship, an open Swiss tournament. He became an International Master, having achieved the required norms and surpassed a FIDE rating of 2400 in 2025.

In March 2026, he scored 6/9 at the 2026 Saint Louis Masters, a top open tournament included in the 2026–2027 FIDE Circuit, finishing seventh and earning his first GM norm.

Reception and media In 2019, the story of his winning the New York Scholastics was reported by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times,