Award-winning national chess master and founder of Chess in Slums Africa, Tunde Onakoya, described his 31st birthday as a symbol of love that has dawned “another decade of doing great things from small places,” seizing the opportunity to tell himself, “Happy birthday, Dreamer Boy.”
The chess master took to his official LinkedIn page on Monday to announce, “Today, I turn 31.”
Recalling what his friend Russ once told him about love like gravity that anchors people when everything else trembles, he said, “I’m still here, loved, held, and used by God.”
He also recalled a question at changed his life when he turned 21 a decade ago: “What would it feel like to give away everything you own and start again with nothing?”
“I decided to answer that question with my life. I was young, restless, and full of a burning desire to do something meaningful with my youth. I emptied my small bank account and placed it in the hands of a woman by the roadside. It wasn’t much, but her tears couldn’t be contained. It met an urgent need for her dying child.
“In that moment, I felt true freedom. Hence, the very beginning of giving myself in service to the world, a seed that would later become the Chess in Slums project,” he said.
The chess master said that the last ten years have been many miracles of love, faith, compassion, purpose, and grace. On the other hand, he added that they have also carried seasons of quiet suffering, “because when you are always the strong one, people sometimes forget to check in.”
Onakoya noted that this year has been the greatest of his life by a margin, recalling the five children from the toughest Nigerian slums that he took to America for chess tournaments.
“I had neglected everything else to chase this wild dream for ten years. It came with painful sacrifices, mistakes, and losses. Yet, I kept showing up, empty but unwilling to stop,” he said.
He urged dreamers like him, with a fiery desire to change a broken world, not to lose hope, not give in to cynicism, and keep the courage to believe in what they cannot yet see.
The chess master revealed that, at 31, the question is different for him now, that he has realised that he is not the hero of this story but only a vessel, adding, “Time and wisdom have given me clarity of purpose and I’m learning to lean on others when my strength is not enough.”
He finally stated that his 31st birthday signifies an immense gratitude, a refined sense of wonder, and a renewed commitment to fight alongside every child who dares to dream.
