Episode 219- Tunde Onakoya (Founder of Chess in Slums)

Twenty-six year-old Tunde Onakoya is one of the top 50 chess players in his native Nigeria (rated 2165 FIDE), and is the founder of a life-changing organization called Chess in Slums. This organization introduces chess to kids in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria, and uses the game as a learning tool to instill confidence and teach critical thinking. It's a much-needed program, because the kids learning about chess are often unable to go to school due to financial or other life circumstances. As Tunde tells us, he was one of those kids not that long ago. Tunde credits chess with changing his life and aims to do the same for the next generation. Tunde is also a musician, a tech aficionado, a speed chess lover, and he has a university degree in Computer Science. Despite his many talents, it is his work bringing chess to kids that inspires him the most, and Tunde joined me amidst a week where a swarm of media attention had helped convince him to devote even more time and energy to the Chess in Slums cause. Tunde tells an inspiring story which is still in its early stages. Please read on for more details, relevant links and timestamps of our interview.

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0:00- We begin by discussing the hectic week that Tunde had preceding our interview, in the wake of a viral tweet of his about the Chess in Slums program, that begat lots of message and media requests.

7:30- Tunde tells the story of how he discovered chess during his own childhood, and how the game changed the trajectory of his life.

Mentioned: Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Jose Raoul Capablanca

15:45- What were the beginnings of the Chess in Slums program?

Mentioned: Chess in Slums’ Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/chessinslums/?igshid=zmqk3bq3d52e

Here is a tweet with the story of the girl named Basirat

https://twitter.com/Tunde_OD/status/1265289693731721216?s=20

Facebook page here-

https://www.facebook.com/pg/chessinslums/posts/

27:45- How do the kids in the slums respond to chess?

31:30- Perpetual Chess is proud to be brought to you in part by Chessable.com. They are having a big sale this week, to check out what's available, you can go here:

Chess Courses Online - For All Levels in all - Chessable.com

32:00- Tunde discusses Chess.com/Chesskid’s sponsorship of Chess in the Slums.

Mentioned: Carey Fan, University of California, The Chess in Slums Go Fund Me link is here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/chess-education-in-africa?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&

40:30- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessmood.com!

Check out Chessmood’s blog here:

https://chessmood.com/blog and check out their YouTube, featuring Lessons with a Grandmaster here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ChessMood

40:30-Tunde explains a bit about how the Nigerian school system works, and about the living situation for himself and the local kids.

48:00- Is a chess culture taking hold in Nigeria?

51:30- We talk a bit about Tunde's own blitz game.

Mentioned: Perpetual Chess Episode 42 with James Altucher, IM Eric Rosen, GM Simon Williams (Ginger GM), GInger GM’s Iron English course: