Tanitoluwa Adewumi - My Name Is Tani . . . and I Believe in Miracles: The Amazing True Story of One Boys Journey from Refugee to Chess Champion

2020 Kayode Adewumi and Oluwatoyin Adewumi

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ISBN 978-0-7852-3271-1 (HC)

ISBN 978-0-7852-3274-2 (e-Book)

Epub Edition February 2020 9780785232742

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952508

Printed in the United States of America

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To almighty God, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

To my dad, my mom, and my brother.

And to the whole world.

Thank you!

CONTENTS

My name is Tani, and my family says I like to ask a lot of questions. Theyre right. I like puzzles. I like riddles. I like trying to figure out why things happen and how things work.

But things have been different lately. Instead of asking the questions, Ive been the one trying to answer them. A lot of people have wanted to know all kinds of things about me and my life. They want to know what life was like for me and how I feel about the way things have changed. They want me to tell my story, and I want to tell it, but theres never enough time to say everything thats in my head.

So this book is going to be my answer.

But if Im going to tell you my story, I need to start by saying that I dont remember much about Nigeria. I know that I was six years old when these really bad people called Boko Haram tried to kill my dad and we had to leavebut honestly, I was asleep most of the times they came looking for my dad, so youd have to ask him about that.

What I do remember about life in Nigeria is playing soccer and my brother, Austin, trying to teach me chess and how one day I was watching the news on the TV and there was this airplane pilot who had just done something amazing. He was Nigerian like me, and there must have been a really serious problem with the plane because everyone was excited about the fact that he had landed safely and everyone survived. From that moment on I wanted to be a pilot. Its not because of money, though. Being a pilot makes you rich, but I dont mean money rich. I liked the idea of doing something like that to help people.

I remember a lot about life in America. Like how when we moved to New York I learned about chess, properly this time, and discovered that the very best players in the world are called grand masters, and so, from then on, I started to think that it might be good to be a grand master too. And then one day Coach Shawn Martinez actually took me to meet Fabiano Caruana, who is the number two chess player in the whole world! He shook my hand and we talked, and from that moment on, I decided that I definitely wanted to be a grand master.

And then something happened.

I won a chess competition, and lots and lots and lots of people wanted to talk to me. It wasnt just people from New York or even America. People from all over the world wanted to know my story. Some of them still do.

A lot of the people I have spoken to ask me about chess. They say things like How has chess changed your life? or What do you like most about playing chess? I mostly give them the same answer to both questions, which is that chess has taught me how to do deep thinking. Sometimes people laugh when they hear me say that, but I dont see how its very funny.

The more I think about all this, the more I know that I cant answer either of those questions quickly. I need a lot more than one minute to be able to explain everything. And I dont think I can even do it all myself because theres so much that I dont remember.

So the best way to tell my story is to have my parents help me. They know all the details of everything thats happened, and theyre also my heroes. None of this wouldve even happened if it hadnt been for them.

I would have asked Austin to help tell this story, too, but he likes basketball a lot more than he likes writing. But hes still my hero as well.

After I won the chess tournament and spoke to all those people, life changed really quickly for all of us. Recently Ive been thinking again about being a pilot. Since talking to everyone, I now know that there are a lot of places Ive not been to, and if I were a pilot, maybe I could go see them. I could fly to China, Japan, Arizona, Kentucky, Turkey, and England. I want to go to these places and live there for maybe one whole year or maybe just five months. I read in a book that the average person lives to be seventy-one years old, but I think Im not going to live the average. I think Im going to live to be more than one hundred. So maybe Ill do bothbe a grand master and a pilot too. Id like that.

I dont know what Im going to be. My dad says thats okay.

But I do know this much. I believe in miracles.

TANI

At first I was happy when they sent us home from school early. I think I was in first grade and it was before Christmastime. What I know for sure is that after morning recess the teachers told us school was done for the day and that we should leave.

Wow. That was good news.

You would have thought the teachers would have been happy about getting out of school early, too, but they werent. They all looked serious as they whispered together. They hurried us out into the yard and stood watching us, making sure we stayed behind the locked gates until our parents came to fetch us.

Austin and I had to wait for ages until Mom came, but it didnt matter. We were still happy. Austin even let me sit next to him on the bench.

And when we got home, we played soccer in the courtyard with some friends.

Soccer is not an easy game when youre little and youre playing your big brother and his friends who are way taller than you. And its really hard when they dont pass you the ball, even though you stand on the side and wave your arms and shout over and over to them, Hey, pass me the ball! Im over here! Pass it to me! Pass it!

They just ignored me. I shouted louder, but they still ignored me. Then, even though I really didnt want to, I started to cry. I couldnt stop the tears.

So that was when a really good day stopped being so good after all.

I went inside and saw Mom. Granddad was there too. They both looked as serious as the teachers looked. I didnt like the fact that I was crying, but I was really upset about the soccer game. I told Mom about Austin and his friends not passing the ball to me, and she said shed go speak to them. But she didnt. She just gave me a hug while she kept talking with Granddad about the school closing early.