Tunde Onakoya
Tunde Onakoya is a Nigerian chess master, coach and founder of Chess in Slums Africa. He has organized a number of interventions for children across slums in Lagos including Majidun (Ikorodu), Makoko and recently, Oshodi. The children are engaged in a 2 week's session that seeks to unlock their potential through the game of chess while learning to read, write and acquire basic literacy skills. Background and career. Tunde learned to play chess at a barber's shop in a slum in Ikorodu where he grew up. Being unable to pay for his secondary school, his mother  offered to work for a school as a cleaner in exchange for his school fees. He would later be ranked as the number 13 chess player in Nigeria. He got a diploma in computer science at Yaba College of Technology where he was gold medalist representing the school in Nigeria Polytechnic Games and also at the RCCG Chess Championship. He has also won the National Friends of Chess and the Chevron Chess Open. He was featured in CNN African Voices. He is a board member of the New York City based non-profit The Gift of Chess. Chess in Slums  Africa. Started in September 2018, Chess in Slums Africa started is a volunteer driven non-profit organization which aims to empower young ones in impoverished communities by using the game of chess. Chess in Slums partnered with Chess.com in September 2020 as an educational tool for classrooms, chess clubs, and parents. As of June 2021, Chess in Slums had trained over 200 children and got lifelong scholarships for 20 of them. In May 2021, Ferdinand, a 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy won the chess tournament in Makoko. He would later meet and compete with Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the  governor of Lagos State.