Tani Adewumi Wins 2024 U.S. Cadet Championship

FM Tanitoluwa "Tani" Adewumi won the 2024 U.S. Cadet Championship, held June 20 through 23 in Lisle, IL. The seven-round Round Robin featured eight of the country's top players under the age of 16, with the 13-year-old Adewumi winning the event outright with a 6/7 score.

photo courtesy Adewumi family

Adewumi yielded only two draws — winning his other five games — against an incredibly strong field. In fact, Adewumi was the lower-rated player (according to FIDE ratings) in five of his seven games. He got off to a hot start with a first-round win against one of two IMs in the field, and then he never looked back:

Adewumi can add the $1,000 first prize and $10,000 in scholarships to his college/university of choice ($5,000 from the Dewain Barber Foundation and $5,000 from US Chess) to a list of accolades that includes earning his final IM norm just a few months ago. The impressive result should also get him closer to the 2400 FIDE rating threshold necessary for the title.

Below are two more of his wins from the event, featuring a more positional grind against FM Isaac Wang and then an emphatic tactical melee in the last round:

It was just last year that Adewumi finished in a disappointing last place in the same tournament. A year later, and he wins it outright ahead of last year's champion (FM Erick Zhao), finishing a full two points ahead of IM Ryo Chen, who took home $500 for clear second.

On tiebreaks, Ngo finished third ahead of Sun, Tang finished fifth ahead of Zhao, and Wang finished seventh ahead of Liu

All games from the event can be reviewed on LiChess.org here.

Editor's note: an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that there was a multi-way tie for second place on an even score. The story has been updated to reflect that IM Ryo Chen finished clear second with a 4/7 score. Thanks to Karl Heck for the correction.