Chess champion Tunde Onakoya immortalised in children’s book

A child who’s not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth —Onakoya

Many people, including children and young people, would find it difficult to believe that a mere board game like chess can change the life of someone, especially if that someone is from a broken home, a poor background, or worst still, from a slum.

But writer and publisher, Lola Shoneyin, and architect and illustrator, Kayode Onimole, do not think like most people, and that was why they decided to study and document the life, experience, and triumphs of Guinness World Records breaker, chess master, and founder of Chess in Slums Africa (CISA), Tunde Onakoya, in a children’s book to inspire children and young people, especially those in the streets and from lowly communities, into greatness.

When Shoneyin first approached Onakoya about turning his childhood experiences into a book, he rejected the idea — not out of fear or reluctance, but because he felt his story was still unfolding.

“I didn’t think I had finished becoming,” he said.

But Shoneyin did not take that as a ‘No’. She did not give up the idea and vision of the book, just the way Onakoya did not give up on his dreams. She pushed and pushed until the book was born.

‘Tunde Onakoya, The Chess Champion’, published by Ouida Books, was written by Lola Shoneyin and illustrated by Kayode Onimole, with a dedication that reads: “For all who give themselves to inspire Nigerian youth.”

Shoneyin noted that Onakoya’s journey from the dangerous streets under Oshodi Bridge in Lagos to the global stage shows that even the unlikely beginnings can lead to extraordinary accomplishments, adding, “The book will inspire children to believe that everyone can make a difference.”

At the 2025 Ake Arts and Book Festival, the 13th edition of the festival, held last Saturday in Lagos and themed ‘Reclaiming Truth’, Onakoya, Shoneyin, and Onimole were in a panel moderated by Kenyan-based cultural curator and literary advocate, Muthoni Muiruri.

The panel was moving and electrifying as Onakoya surprised the audience with a version of himself that only a few people knew about. At age ten, he could hardly read or write, but luckily stumbled on two books, ‘Step-by-Step Chess’ and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ that, that he revealed, “Introduced me to a world that existed beyond the one I grew up in.”

He explained the ecosystem of survival that pushes children into violence, abandoned homes, poverty, gangs, manipulation, and trauma. He emphasised that people often mistake these symptoms for identity.

“If the first story you tell yourself about a street child is anger, then you are not seeing that child at all,” he said. “A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”

He stated that the danger of a single story, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns, is not that it is not true, but that it is incomplete. In light of this, he urged people and society to look deeper to understand what lies beneath a child, especially street children, before judging or condemning them.

The chess master explained that when children are seen for who they truly are and looked beyond their mistakes, that is when something beautiful that lies behind their fears and shortcomings can be seen, something beautiful that people can help them become.

“Children should be extended that grace because I have seen miracles happen when you show them a bit of compassion,” he said.

Onakoya stressed that stories and representation matter — and that seeing children, truly seeing them, matters too, noting that a child who is seen grows into an adult who shines.

Onakoya left the audience with a charge: “The only way to justify our privileges is to have a sense of duty to children in the street.”

Perhaps, one of the most intriguing things about Onakoya’s story and journey is captured by Shoneyin in the author’s note section of the book, where she writes, “Games and videos can feel exciting — but books are just as powerful. When we read about heroes like Tunde Onakoya, we learn that people from humble beginnings can do amazing things.”