EP.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.  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 pro