Samuel Awobajo

Head of Operations @chessinslums ♟️
Business | Operations | Project Management
Chess♟️| Projects & People
Building things that matter, one project at a time.

[Samuel Awobajo @_oluwatoye]

Joined the Movement💪🏽❤️ @Tunde_OD @chessinslums To get yours, you can order https://t.co/uUpY9805by to support @chessinslums fundraising campaign🤙🏽

[Tunde Onakoya @Tunde_OD]

As part of our Global fundraising campaign to raise money to build a chess academy and promote Chess education in Africa, we're officially launching the sale of our Chess Fìlà.

Get yours here: https://t.co/ezlBow8PEB

[Every nigga deserves @ENIGGADESERVES]

At least register. You can decide how you want to participate later, my nigga.

[stressed @onlystresstoday]

Love yourself a little extra right now. You're balancing so much, handling things no one sees, and doing your best. You deserve grace.

[Official Shoday @official_shoday]

Learn how to stop giving excuses for people in your head, everybody know wetin them dey do.

[CHESS IN SLUMS AFRICA @chessinslums]

As you close this chapter with us, we pause to reflect on the journey, the memories, and the impact you’ve made as Head of the Medical Team.

Eight years ago, you volunteered your time and heart to help us unveil the royalty in every child. Since then, your journey with CISA has been marked by commitment, service, and a genuine desire to make a difference in the lives of the children we serve.

Eight years later, we are grateful for the time, care, and dedication you have poured into this mission. Your contribution will always be a part of our story.

On behalf of the entire CISA team, thank you for your service, your leadership, and the impact you have made over the years.

As you begin this next chapter, we wish you continued growth, fulfilment, and success.

Cheers to Day 1. ❤️

#ChessInSlumsAfrica #UnveilingRoyaltyInEveryChild #ChessInNigeria #TundeOnakoya

[highFashion @rahman_jago_]

I thank God for the times I didn't even really pray, but He came.

[CHESS IN SLUMS AFRICA @chessinslums]

Happy Birthday to our amazing Ivie @chesswitivie! 🎉♟️❤️

Today, we celebrate a truly awesome kid with a big personality, a bright mind and a genuine love for chess.

Ivie is not only a fantastic chess player, but also such a cool and wonderful child to have around. We’re excited to see her keep growing, learning, making bold moves and becoming everything she’s capable of.

Keep shining, Ivie!✨♟️

Happy Birthday to you! ❤️

[CHESS IN SLUMS AFRICA @chessinslums]

In 2021, we met Ferdinand during our chess in community project in Makoko, a community often described as the world’s largest floating slum.

Living with cerebral palsy, Ferdinand had never attended school and could not speak English. He was often bullied, and at one point, other children tried to stop him from attending our classes. Then one of our trainers noticed him and brought him in.

Within hours, we discovered an extraordinary understanding of chess through his ability to recognise patterns. Just two weeks later, Ferdinand stood out at the Makoko Chess Dream Project tournament, earning a full scholarship and opening the door to new possibilities.

When he received his medal and trophy, Ferdinand spoke his first word to us: “Champion.”

That moment felt surreal, and since then his journey has taken him to places far beyond Makoko. He has played chess with Nigeria’s former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, received the 2024 Intellectual Bravery Award at the Indomie Heroes Awards, played at the 2025 United Nations Chess Games in New York, and received the Young Generous Award at the 12th Chess & Community Conference in Athens, Georgia.

And now, another milestone. At 15, Ferdinand has graduated from Primary School. 🎓

For years, we have supported his education and that of his three siblings, while also supporting his family.

Through it all, Ferdinand has continued to learn, compete, win and keep moving forward. For this special feature, we had a chat with his mother, his class teacher and some of his classmates to hear from the people who have witnessed his growth firsthand.

They share their reflections on Ferdinand’s academic performance, character and the determination that has brought him to this moment.

His graduation is much more than the completion of his primary school education. It is a milestone in a journey that began with a boy who was once denied the opportunity to learn and has now grown into a young champion with a world of possibilities ahead of him.

Ferdinand, congratulations on this incredible milestone. The next chapter awaits♟️

📷: @solphilms

@Tunde_OD #ChessInSlumsAfrica #Ferdinand #BeyondTheBoard #ChildDevelopment #EducationForAll

[wasiu @korty_EO]

Lord, make our money constant

[CHESS IN SLUMS AFRICA @chessinslums]

Today, we join the world in celebrating literacy as a foundation for human development and a catalyst for expanding opportunities and a powerful driver for more inclusive and sustainable societies.

In many ways, literacy and chess speak the same language: the language of possibility.

Literacy gives children the power to understand, question, communicate, and participate meaningfully in the world around them. It helps them see beyond what is familiar, imagine what could be, and find their voice in shaping the world they live in.

That is why we must ensure that knowledge is not a privilege reserved for a few and that every child has the opportunity to learn, think, and explore what they are capable of becoming.

A literate child can understand their world.
A curious child can question it.
A critical thinker can reimagine it.
And an empowered child can help change it.

Join us as we continue building a world where every child has access to the knowledge, education, and opportunities they need to imagine a better future and the tools to make it a reality.

Happy International Literacy Day! 🌍📚♟️

📷: @AmazynArts

#InternationalLiteracyDay #ChessForChange #ChessInSlumsAfrica #ForPeopleForPlanetForProsperity

[Peterovski 🥷 @Peterovskii]

The trophy tells you what we achieved.
This diary will tell you what it took.

Welcome to the Diary of a Chess Coach.

[Samuel Awobajo @_oluwatoye]

RT @chessinslums: We’re excited to officially launch Cohort 2 of the Chess Dream Project, a 14-week journey equipping young people with the…

[Samuel Awobajo @_oluwatoye]

@UncleTamanii 👀🌚

[CHESS IN SLUMS AFRICA @chessinslums]

It's been 8 years and we've never once run out of moves♟️.

Eight years ago, we started with a simple belief: that chess could be more than a game.

Today, we’ve seen that belief take us far beyond the board, into classrooms, communities, tournaments, new cities, new partnerships, and new possibilities.

We’ve watched children become champions, champions become leaders, and every move open the door to something bigger.

And this journey is far from over.

8 years down. ♟️
Infinite possibilities ahead.

Happy 8th Anniversary to everyone who has moved with us, believed with us, and helped us keep the game going.

The journey to unveiling royalty in every child continues💪

#ChessInSlumsAfrica #UnveilingRoyaltyInEveryChild #8YearAnniversary

[Tunde Onakoya @Tunde_OD]

The beauty of setting one’s heart on.

Today marks exactly eight years since we officially kickstarted the Chess in Slums project. Oh, how beautifully time flies.

It still feels like yesterday when, with trembling hands, I committed my heart to this seemingly impossible miracle of doing great things from small places.

I feel immense gratitude today, above all things. But I also want to share a recent contemplation from one of my many mundane musings about life.

Sometime in July, while I was in New York, I decided to take a really long walk through the city. New York is a deeply fascinating place, with so much to see and admire that one can easily get lost in its allure and chaos.

So I gave myself a simple task to find and photograph everything in color blue.

Suddenly, it felt like the city changed, at least in my own eyes.

A blue bicycle chained to a railing. A stranger in a blue coat. A young boy in a blue shirt held closely by his mother, one of his hands carefully wrapped in a blue cast. Blue tents. A small patch of sky reflected in the glass of a building.

By the end of my walk, I had taken so many wonderful pictures of all the beautiful blue things my curiosity could capture.

Of course, the city hadn’t changed. The blue had always been there.

What changed was that I had decided to look for it.

I haven’t stopped thinking about that experience ever since, about the strange and beautiful power of setting one’s heart on something, and how what we choose to look for in the world eventually teaches us how to see.

It feels even more meaningful today because eight years ago, I set my heart on the Chess in Slums project, and it became my own trail of blue through the world.

It taught me to see possibility in the lives of children in places where poverty had robbed them of the basic dignity of being human beings with dreams and aspirations.

We went into those places with chessboards and a simple belief: there is remarkable brilliance here, if only someone is willing to look for it.

It has been the greatest privilege of my life to witness what happens when a child who has been invisible for most of their life finally encounters someone who sees them.

And perhaps that is another thing I have learned: we do not only find what we are looking for. Sometimes, by looking long enough and loving deeply enough, we help it become visible to others too.

These eight years have carried the full spectrum of being alive: beautiful moments, difficult years, mistakes, exhaustion, hurt, disappointment, uncertainty, and days when the size of the problem made our efforts feel painfully small.

But chess has taught me something about small things.

The pawn is the smallest, most ordinary piece on the chessboard. Yet hidden within its humble beginning is the possibility of becoming something far greater than anyone imagined.

Perhaps children are like that too.

There are still millions of children across Africa whose brilliance remains hidden behind circumstances they did not choose.

So we will keep looking.

We will keep going to the small places.

To help them burn brighter and hold them up long enough for the world to see.

And perhaps this is the beauty of setting one’s heart on something: That you begin by searching the world for a particular kind of light….

Then one day, you look around and realize you have spent your life helping to create it.

Happy anniversary, @chessinslums.

To our incredible team, volunteers, partners, friends and supporters over the years, thank you for believing, for staying, and for teaching me in the most profound way that no amount of darkness can conquer a flicker of light.

Eight years later, my heart is still set on the same thing.

This is Day One, all over again.

[Samuel Awobajo @_oluwatoye]

@UncleTamanii Okay

[Samuel Awobajo @_oluwatoye]

🌚👀

[العم تماني @UncleTamanii]

Carrick is clueless.

[stressed @onlystresstoday]

please be kind. don’t be the reason someone skips a meal, hates waking up, or feels left out. your words and actions stick with people forever

[highFashion @rahman_jago_]

Go where your flower is watered
With caution, care and admiration
While you're going there however,
Remember to go with your water can as well. Pay it forward

[highFashion @rahman_jago_]

Any money you spend on eating well, dressing well, and exploring the world is never a waste.