Tani Captures Second US Cadet Championship

Editor’s note: This report will be updated in the upcoming days with photos from the tournament.

FM Tanitoluwa Adewumi has repeated as the US Cadet Champion in Schaumburg, IL, winning the 2025 eight-player Round Robin with a round to spare. The annual US Cadet Championship pits the highest-rated American chess players under the age of 16 (as of the first of the year) against each other for the title of Cadet champion.

This cover from the August 2024 issue of Chess Life Kids comes in handy once again!

The 14-year-old New Yorker finished with an undefeated 6/7 score, a full point ahead of second-place FM Andrew Jiang. Adewumi matched his score from his 2024 campaign, although Jiang came closer this year than anybody did last year (when the closest challenger finished with 4/7).

Just like last year, Adewumi earned $1,000 in cash and $10,000 in scholarships to his college/university of choice ($5,000 from the Dewain Barber Foundation and $5,000 from US Chess). Jiang, a 15-year-old from Georgia, earned $500 for his 5/7 score. In her last year of eligibility, FM Rose Atwell finished in clear third with 4½/7, earning $300. FMs Henry Deng and Linxi Zhu tied for fourth, splitting the $200 prize.

Tani Adewumi at SuperNationals VIII (Photo by David Llada)

Adewumi’s victory was a fitting capstone to a highly successful spring. In April, his FIDE rating surpassed 2400 for the first time, making him eligible for the IM title at the next FIDE congress. Then, in May, Adewumi tied for first in the K-12 Championship section of SuperNationals VIII in Orlando as a high school freshman. Together with fellow co-champion IM Nico Chasin, his Columbia Grammar & Prep School (CGPS) also won the K-12 team championship.

Played over four days from July 19 through 22, the seven-round event used a time control of 90 minutes per game with a 30-second increment from move one and no bonus time on move 40.

By the end of the second day of play, Adewumi and Deng both led with perfect 3/3 scores. After each drawing their respective games on Saturday morning, Adewumi won the head-to-head encounter against Deng to separate from the pack. With another win Sunday morning, Adewumi clinched the tournament before the final round even started.

Between the sudden death time control and the playing styles of many of the participants, a number of games featured fireworks that will make an appearance in next week’s Wednesday Workout. For now, enjoy a pair of instructive victories from Adewumi that showcase both his attacking intuition and his constantly maturing positional play:

Jiang and Atwell each produced a number of fine victories, and what impressed me most about each game included below was the way the victorious player managed to control the flow of the game. Players who qualify for a prestigious event such as this do not simply make bad decisions or “drift” in a vacuum. If they make a mistake, it is because the most accurate path has been winnowed down by brilliant play from their opponent.

All games from the tournament can be reviewed on Chess.com, where FM James Canty III streamed live coverage all weekend.