Wild Chive, the brainchild of Brooklyn-based vegan chef Soozee Nguyen that has been a vagabond staple across the city, has finally found its forever-home: Nguyen signed a lease for the building at 2650 E. Broadway. Wild Chive will open June 5.

Nguyen, who had been doing brunch pop-ups at Portfolio Coffeehouse and MADE by Millworks, has been saving up since landing in Long Beach and takes over what was an antique renovation space.

Its crazy to think that its been four years since I had moved back from working my way through the kitchens of New York City, she said. The popups and residencies have been nice but the big dream and goal has always been to lay down some roots with our very own brick and mortar.

Four years running but 10 years in the making, Nguyen can finally offer her famed Vegan Brunch on a regular basis within her own space and join the growing vegan scene that has taken hold throughout the city.

When I became vegetarian at 19, I still yearned for the good stuff, Nguyen said. Not so much the actual food, but more what that food meanta certain flavor, a texture and that kick Id grown accustomed to after growing up in Texas eating meals prepared by my mother, a traditional Vietnamese cook, and my father, an experimental kind of guy with a taste for fusions.

Nguyens keen sensibility for high-quality vegan food kept vegans and non-vegans alike returning for signature dishes such as stuffed french toast filled with house-made chocolate-hazelnut spread, fresh strawberries, bananas, coconut whip and topped with maple and almonds. Or a breakfast bnh m filled with tofu, tempeh bacon and ham, pickled veggies, cucumber, cilantro, chile, fried shallots, and a chive-cilantro aioli.

Highlights for this space? Vegan Vietnamese Coffee with housemade condensed milk, French Quarter beignets, a vegan Monte Cristo sandwich and vegan macncheeseand it will be available for takeout and delivery come June 5. Thats going to be followed by an expansion into their candle-lit dinner service, open-air dining with their outdoor patio, and a craft beer and wine bar that is currently in the works.

Wild Chive is located at 2650 E. Broadway.

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Vegan fave Wild Chive to open brick-and-mortar in Bluff Park the Hi-lo - Long Beach Post

The report on the Vegan Cosmetics market provides a birds eye view of the current proceeding within the Vegan Cosmetics market. Further, the report also takes into account the impact of the novel COVID-19 pandemic on the Vegan Cosmetics market and offers a clear assessment of the projected market fluctuations during the forecast period. The different factors that are likely to impact the overall dynamics of the Vegan Cosmetics market over the forecast period (2019-2029) including the current trends, growth opportunities, restraining factors, and more are discussed in detail in the market study.

The Vegan Cosmetics market study is a well-researched report encompassing a detailed analysis of this industry with respect to certain parameters such as the product capacity as well as the overall market remuneration. The report enumerates details about production and consumption patterns in the business as well, in addition to the current scenario of the Vegan Cosmetics market and the trends that will prevail in this industry.

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What pointers are covered in the Vegan Cosmetics market research study?

The Vegan Cosmetics market report Elucidated with regards to the regional landscape of the industry:

The geographical reach of the Vegan Cosmetics market has been meticulously segmented into United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia & India, according to the report.

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The competitive expanse of this business has been flawlessly categorized into companies such as

The key players covered in this study Ecco Bella Billy Jealousy Modern Minerals Makeup Urban Decay Bare Blossom Mulondon Organic

Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Makeup Skin Care Hair Care Others Market segment by Application, split into E-Commerce Hypermarket/Supermarket Specialty Stores Departmental Stores Others

Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia India Central & South America

The study objectives of this report are: To analyze global Vegan Cosmetics status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. To present the Vegan Cosmetics development in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Central & South America. To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies. To define, describe and forecast the market by type, market and key regions.

In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Vegan Cosmetics are as follows: History Year: 2015-2019 Base Year: 2019 Estimated Year: 2020 Forecast Year 2020 to 2026 For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2019 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.

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Some of the Major Highlights of TOC covers:

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Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Vegan Cosmetics Market 2019 Services, Demand, Size, Growth Trends, Business Opportunities, Industry Analysis, Top...

C3 Partners with Global Hospitality Company sbe to Launch 100% Vegan Delivery-Only Concept

Creating Culinary Communities (C3), the leader in virtual kitchen and culinary concept development, announces the launch of its third delivery-only restaurant concept, 100% vegan, Plant Nation. C3 has partnered with global lifestyle hospitality company, sbe, to utilize its vast network of restaurants and partner ghost kitchens.

C3is currently open with eight locations in the LA market and plans to expand rapidly during the next six months adding over 40 locations in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles. Due to its partnership with sbe, C3 will operate over 180 ghost kitchens spanning existing and forthcoming brands, by the end of this year.

Sam Nazarian, Founder & CEO and majority shareholder of C3 commented, Plant Nation follows in the footsteps of our recent launches Sams Crispy Chicken and Krispy Rice with offerings that serve a new subset of our customers who are looking for elevated, plant-based options. We willcontinueto innovate within ourstrong group of brands and look forward to serving our community, especially during these uncertain times.

The delivery-only restaurant concept, Plant Nation, is the latest driving component of C3 introducing the world to a never-before-seen approach to ghost kitchens and mobile delivery. sbe plans to chart new territory in the growing ghost kitchen industry thats disrupting the future of dining, giving consumers the ability to order a meal at the touch of a button by opening over 250 ghost kitchens by 2022. Reinforcing sbes commitment to this growing field, the global company has coined the term phone to table, cementing its role in the evolving restaurant industry. The concept marks sbes foray into the food delivery spectrum thats set to become a more than $75 billion business in the next two years.

Vegetarian food has gone mainstream with the online food delivery segment up 30% this year alone, Plant Nation is the perfect platform to show our guests how we use modern culinary techniques to create a memorable and seemingly indulgent experience, stated Chef Heierling. We are excited to share Plant Nations inventive dishes and innovative partners with our community.

Plant Nation also displays playful and bold packaging design which is a result of the collaboration between sbe and award-winning creative marketing agency Digital Kitchen who together created custom carbon-neutral and compostable packaging made from recyclable materials. The visually eye-catching, innovative boxes were thoughtfully designed to maintain the integrity of the food while adding a pop of fun to the consumers meal.

Thanks to sbes network of restaurants and partner ghost kitchens, Plant Nationis available for daily delivery in Los Angeles from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm throughPostmates, UberEats, Doordash, GrubHub, and Caviar.

C3 is a partnership between sbe; Simon, a global leader in the ownership of premier shopping, dining, entertainment, and mixed-use destinations; and Accor, the world-leading augmented hospitality group offering unique experiences in more than 5,000 hotels and residences across 110 destinations. By combining sbes ability to build and grow successful, award-winning food and beverage concepts, Simons extensive real estate footprint and Accors international hotel base of 5,000 properties, C3 is enviably positioned to be the leader and pioneer in the virtual kitchen space and currently operates four virtual brands with over 60 kitchens in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA.

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C3 Partners with Global Hospitality Company sbe to Launch 100% Vegan Delivery-Only Concept - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

Applewood, a cheese company that has been producing traditional dairy cheese for more than 56-years, launched its first-ever vegan cheese last year which proved so popular that it sold out in just one day.

Now the company has secured listings at Sainsburys supermarket to stock its new vegan cheese slices that are perfect for burgers and sandwiches.

Applewood Vegan Slices will be stocked in 304 Sainsburys stores across the UK and will RRP at 2.50 for ten slices.

The cheese is also available in 200g blocks in 470 Asda stores, 250 Waitrose and Partner stores as well as online via TheVeganKind and VBites.

Lisa Harrison, Senior Brand Manager for Applewood, said:The success of Applewood Vegan has been phenomenal. The excitement around the launch back in October was amazing with 40% of the Asda stores stocking it sold out, which started us thinking about how we could innovate with the cheese, which has led to the creation of the new slices product.

We are over the moon that Sainsburys is on board and has agreed to stock it in 304 stores from 14 June; they will be a great partner for the cheese slices. It shows that there is an increasing demand for vegan cheese, not just among the vegan community, but also with flexitarians.

Get the recipe for vegan cheese scones made with Applewood Vegan smoked cheese here.

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Applewood Vegan cheese will be available at Sainsbury's from June - Vegan Food and Living

Maayan Ora, originally from Montreal, is a vegan who uses her love of art to create delicious and vibrant recipes.

She is in her second year of blogging online about healing foods and plans to open a restaurant in Jerusalem next year.

Her motto, she says, has always been revealing the light within the truth. She believes there is more than an appealing exterior to food and works to highlight the beauty inside in her recipes.

Plant-based shakshuka with a chickpea-flour omelet.Photo courtesy of Maayan Ora

My name is a big part of my healing journey, she says.My name in Hebrew means Wellspring of Light. We are all given names which are a lot more powerful than we know. I believe our parents name us for what they saw in us, a garment of our soul, a power that we will shine through one day, its very deep and very real to me.

Ora says that before diving into any food or therapy, one should look at the name and the meaning of it and they will understand a lot more.

Avo Toast with sourdough bread, cashew spread and quinoa patties. Photo courtesy of Maayan Ora

Vegan Indian Thali. Photo courtesy of Maayan Ora

Truffle mushroom burger on sourdough bun. Photo courtesy of Maayan Ora

After immigrating to Israel three years ago, she saw how the vegan movement boomed in Israel.

Whats special about Israel is that a lot of people are looking for something deeper. Maybe because they live in their soul country or because of the way the culture is. I think Israelis are talented and lucky to be in a space where they can spread the healing of the body.

Ora was not always vegan, but later in life she saw the way food affected her body. Veganism means healing and preventative medicine to her.

Loaded Veggie Bowl topped with vegan sour cream. Photo courtesy of Maayan Ora

While she loves animals and the environment, health is her main reason for promoting veganism.

I feel that before anything else we need to save our own body. Our body is our walking vehicle in this world. One must take very good care of it.

Loaded Veggie Bowls and tahini. Photo courtesy of Maayan Ora

Q: What is the philosophy of the restaurant you are planning to open?

A: Healing. Our whole beings are solely created from a seed. And from there we grow. When I look at real food plant based I see seeds. Seeds waiting to be treated and cooked with love. The idea is that our bodies cant handle much. We grow up with different illnesses or later in life it hits us. The food we put into our mouths has a lot to do with chronic illnesses. All we have to do is get to know the nutrients and see what our bodies really need in order to not just survive, but live.

Barbecue Jackfruit Nachos with a side of artichoke guac and cashew cheese. Photo courtesy of Maayan Ora

Q: Why do you want to open a vegan restaurant?

A: Plant based has always been an eye catcher for me. The things you can create with simple foods, its endless. I also wanted to use the experience to acquire more knowledge about food interactions in the body.

Maayan Oras Healing Mushroom Coconut Curry Soup

Go crazy on the spices because they are flavor and because they are medicine, Ora says.

Saut in a little oil:

Add in:

Cook until soft.

Add:

Bring to a boil briefly. Add salt and pepper. Blend, eat and enjoy.

Continued here:

Art-inspired vegan recipes for health and healing - ISRAEL21c

Hugo and Ross Turner or is that Ross and Hugo? have earned the nickname the adventure guinea pigs. In 2015, the twins scaled Europes highest peak, Mt Elbrus in the Caucasus, to compare traditional mountaineering gear with modern equipment (the latter proved to be mostly marketing). Theyve been to Greenland, where a replica of Sir Ernest Shackletons 1914 expedition kit uniformly outperformed the contemporary equivalent, from the Sunspel jumper and Crockett & Jones boots to a wooden sled.

Most recently, they embarked on a trial of a vegan diet versus a typical omnivorous one, with their body composition monitored by Virgin Active and their biomarkers tested by Kings College Londons Department of Twin Research. We caught up with them two months in to see what they'd learnt.

MH: This isnt the first time youve compared diets...

Ross: At the end of last year we did a test of high-fat vs high-carb. I was on a high-fat diet and I shredded. I lost about 3kg of fat; Hugo was on high-carb and he put on 3kg.

Hugo: Ross has always been slightly heavier, so, we met each other in the middle. At the end, we were 85kg each.

Ross: But I was much, much leaner.

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MH: How fun or not were those diets to follow?

Ross: I did miss carbs. I really did miss carbs. But as soon as I had them, I felt bloated, straight away.

MH: So, what are the main takeaways from meat versus veg?

Ross: My cholesterol has stayed the same about 6.5, quite high and Hugo [on the vegan diet] is down to 4.9.

Hugo: I was about 5.9 at the start, so its dropped drastically.

Ross: As well as your libido.

Hugo: Yeah, my libido went out the window. But my energy levels [were better]. I didnt get that sugar drop. Most snacks chocolate, biscuits, sweets I couldnt have. I was pretty much just on nuts and fruit.

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Ross: We had Mindful Chef delivering our food, so we had exactly the same calories going in give or take 50 calories across the day.

MH: How did going vegan affect your training?

Hugo: My energy levels in the gym were much, much better. We were going to the gym five, six times a week and I didnt have a session where I thought, I dont really have any energy.

Ross: I was the opposite. I was very hungry at 10 or 11 oclock. I had those big spikes of energy and then Id crash. But then the results [of our training] have been very different I put on weight, and Hugo has lost it.

Hugo: Ive shredded. I lost 4kg of fat in the first two or three weeks.

Ross: We wore continuous glucose monitors: they go on the back of your triceps and connect to your phone. I was spiking, going down, having that sugar low or meat low and Hugo was far more satiated.

MH: What kind of training were you doing?

Hugo: Its endurance-focused, so high-rep, low-weight, rather than trying to build up mass. On our expeditions, we dont want to be carrying extra weight.

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Ross: One of the ways we measure how fit were getting is with a submaximal test: what resistance youre on when you get to a certain heart rate on a Wattbike. Its simple but quite effective if you want to find out what your fitness level is.

MH: And less unpleasant than a VO2 max.

Ross: I dont mind the VO2 max. Its quite fun. An effective way weve found [to track] our endurance training is to count the total mass lifted. Weve gone from about three tonnes which sounds epic to 10 or 11 tonnes in an hour. If you add the weight up, it becomes really motivating.

MH: How much do you bench? A tonne

Ross: It is, though if you lift 100kg, 10 times, thats a tonne. If youve lost weight and youve doubled your lifting capacity, youre getting expedition fit.

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Hugo: Half of it is looking after your body. Whats the chassis like? Is it healthy? Weve got quite rusty chassis in the sense that weve always got painful backs, tight hamstrings and quads. So, its using a good proportion of a gym session on stretching, rolling and core.

Ross: And the other 10% is mindset. Ive been to the gym over the past few months and gone, I really cant be bothered. Thats the point at which you become expedition mind fit. Even if you do very little, but you do the full hour, youre training your mind not to give up. Its so easy not to flex the mental muscle.

On the vegan diet: Hugo lost 1kg of fat and gained 1.2kg of muscle mass On the omnivore diet: Ross gained 2.8kg of fat and 4kg of muscle mass

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These Twins Trialled Veganism Against Meat-Eating. Here's What Happened - Men's Health

By Adegor Ezekiel

As we continue to plead with our divine creator to have mercy on humanity and heal our land, we Christians, must never forget what we are standing on; which is the absolute and unwavering faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we put our entire trust in to see us through this pandemic with great joy and celebration.

This faith does not answer to science or government regulations. The fact that houses of worship are restricted has opened up many unregulated houses of worship in peoples homes, where they excercise their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ to fullness of joy and perfection, without the need of face masks, social distancing and restriction on friendly greeting/hugging your fellow worshipper.

In our various homes today, many practice with joy and to perfection the faith the Jesus Christ expects his true followers to worship him in his presence. It is, therefore, disturbing that some Christian leaders are busy negotiating how to partially reopen places of worship under strict regulatory guidelines set by the government.

The idea that our services might now be broken into multiple fragmented sessions with worshippers possibly required to wear face masks and/or gloves to attend services and friendly greetings between your fellow brethren in Christ in the house of the Lord might be classified as a formal offence by the government DO NOT only negate the Faith upon which the church is established, it is also exporting into the congregation of believers, the fear and anxiety associated with people whom do not have a God that is omnipotent and capable of protecting his children.

This generation of Christian leaders must preserve the sanctity of the house of God as a place of refuge and safety for all those who are able and willing to run into it.

People looking to be saved by Christ Jesus, when they come into the house of God and still see fear and anxiety through people wearing face masks worshipping their God whom we claim has all powers in heaven and on earth to prevent and heal his children from any pandemic/plague, will go home with a mindset that the lives of those in the Lords presence are not different from theirs and the message of salvation might never convince such souls.

Where is the line of distinction between believers and unbelievers if we succumb to the fear of coronavirus right in the presence of our Lord and Saviour?

If we allow this fear to extend into the house of God, it means we have handed over the body of Christ entrusted in our care to be under the control of the principalities of fear, distrust and anxiety, which are proxies to the kingdom of satan.

As church leaders, let us appeal to our governments that our Lord Jesus Christ is more than able to take full responsibility of our congregations public health and safety by reopening without restriction to the expression of the faith and joy people are used to showing in the presence of their Lord Almighty. Jesus is still actively in the business of healing and saving all those who are able to sincerely run into him through the Holy spirit and the house of the Lord remains the melting point for this spiritual and Faith led transactional process. Our objective should be to worship God together as one family in righteousness, peace and joy.

If the government insists a full reopening is not possible, then let all congregational leaders continue to encourage their members to worship God almighty with full expression of their joy and faith in Christ Jesus without any fear or anxiety from the comfort of their homes. We must at all time believe in our hearts that the holy spirit unites all of us in one accord irrespective of our physical location while we continue to pray for the government to have a total resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in each area so that we all can be assured to resume worshipping God almighty in an atmosphere devoid of fear, distrust and anxiety that COVID-19 has foisted on societies and communities around the globe.

The atmosphere within the church of Jesus Christ must be defended with our Faith and collective Sacrifice.

Let the Church not be in a haste to accept an arrangement that will promote fear, distrust and anxiety among worshippers in exchange for a spiritless reopening. Either way, God is not glorified and the kingdom of heaven is not benefiting.

The grace of Jesus Christ is still very much in abundance within the body of Christ and it is time for us Christians to excercise that Faith so as to unlock his divine manifestations.

Evangelist Adegor Ezekiel from CCC Zion Parish Itedo Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.

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Time for Christians to Prove the Faith We Are Made up of - THISDAY Newspapers

This potential re-ordering of what is important actually started with the lockdown itself. The lockdown was never of course not anything like total. We have already made value judgements between the rate of infection and societal coherence. To give an obvious example, the Health service was not shut down. The health service underpins, it transpires, absolutely everything else.The protection of its workers, facilities and capabilities turns out to be a good to which all other goods must be sacrificed.

(Not that this is surprising, necessarily, but the revelation that hospital porters and cleaners outrank everyone except doctors and nurses in societal, if not in terms finance of indeed immigration status, has, or bloody well ought to have, occasioned a bit of a rethink.)

Rather less comfortably, but illustrative of priorities that we are now forced to actually LOOK at, it transpires that the effective protection of the GENERAL health service also trumps the safety of those who live and work in care homes for the elderly and vulnerable. In order to make room for a potential tsunami of Covid patients, hospitals had to be emptied of patients who were not at that moment in need of critical care. And if the consequences in our care homes were tragic, then the Darwinian pragmatics of the ordering of society and its priorities were disquietingly exposed as a consequence.

Similarly, it turns out that people who work in delivery and food retail are actually essential to all those bankers and playwrights who can work from home. And as lockdown is eased on the deceptively consensual idea that the economy needs to get going again, similarly brutal realities are exposed. Such as, you have to open schools or provide childcare before people can go to work. Thus, according to the Daily Mail, teachers (and children) must be heroes. To which the predictable responses of teachers, (as well as children and their parents) is You first, mate!

Teachers and underpaid people who deliver Amazon parcels while totally lacking employment rights are clearly more important than we thought! What we are doing in the easing of lockdown, in putting our societies back together in a specific order of re-openings is that we are making conscious, practical choices about how those societies actually function. This was quite impossible when we were stuck in the Trumpian universe we used to live in, where handing out free money to people who were already rich was the answer to all of lifes little difficulties. But it is, however briefly, possible now.

As I write, it appears too that it is currently the judgement of the Prime Minister that it is more important to the nation that he hangs on to his personal focus group Svengali than the entire public health strategy of the last ten weeks is fatally undermined. All of which goes to show that one consequence of the beginning of the end of lockdown, or at least the end of the beginning, is that value judgements about what matters in the ordering of society and what matters most to us, indeed, who we are, is no longer a simple matter of vapid rhetoric about all being in it together. We ared bound to get a bit controversial.

The Veil of Ignorance might be a useful thing to think about as we plan to lift the lockdown. The idea, associated most with American thinker John Rawls, is that, as a mental excercise and way of judging what happens in the real world, you set about designing a social system with NO foreknowledge of your own position in it.Given that normal,for a lot of people (as in the phrase back to normal) was and is pretty crappy, the idea is to imagine a just economy (in terms of housing, health, cultural activity etc etc) where you and your ethnic or social group have NO guarantee of being at the top.

Most people who get to design societies, from Solon to Solomon or Jefferson to Lenin, (let alone UK civil servants) have imagined themselves to be IN CHARGEbecause, through violence or the inherited benefits of violence, they WERE. But we live in a democracy, and in a democracy, we theoretically get to debate and agree how we want to live. And what matters most and in what order.

I suggest that we are in the the Vale of the Veil of Ignorance right nowin that we know everything is going to change, but none of us has the first idea to what. We are getting to debate and agree on some of this stuff right nowfrom the explosion of food distribution charities, to clapping for carers and as we come out of lockdown, we have a limited window of choosing what we actually WANT from the New Normal, of speaking aloud the unspoken consensus we are actually already using to make decisions.

To illustrate the uncertainty personally, playwrights and others have been asking Arts Councils and government ministers for years to consciously and openly decide whether they really want a professional theatre sector in Scotland or not, and to act on that choice. Guess what? Something like that decision about whether the kind of theatre we have been making in the kind of way weve been doing it actually matters is actually GOING TO HAPPEN in the next year or so! As the Prime Mnister will no doubt learn this week, the answers to your questions may not be what you thought. I only hope my bcolleagues and I can make a better case for ourselves than he did.

Less myopically, lifting lockdown on a whole society brings, I think, an obligation to at least partially articulate the principles on which we can agree to its functioning. And that we MAKE those choices without knowing where in the new hierarchy we ourselves will end up! And if it turns out that the new normal, is lazily indistinguishable from the rotten, corrupt old one, well, it will turn out that that is who we are, that is who we choose to be.

It may well be that this is already happening. Maybe we should be talking about it.

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Lifting Lockdown and the Veil of Ignorance - bellacaledonia.org.uk

Tani Adewumi, 9, fled Nigeria with his family and later settled into a New York homeless shelter. Today he dreams of becoming the world's youngest chess grandmaster.

Aishwarya KumarESPN.com

IT'S 9 P.M., and 8-year-old Tani Adewumi is wired, like he'd just swallowed a bag of sugar. He had played chess all day, but he wanted to play more, at least until midnight. The first day of the 2019 New York State Scholastic Chess Championship had just ended, and he finished with three wins in as many matches, surprising a former champion and two other seeded players. He was heading into Day 2 -- the final day of the tournament -- in the lead, and he wanted to keep up the momentum when he returned to the huge Airbnb he was sharing with his family, his coach and a few other coaches in Saratoga Springs.

"If you want to win tomorrow, you better get your butt to sleep like the rest of the champions are right now," his coach, Shawn Martinez, told him. And so, reluctantly, Tani went to bed, and as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell asleep. Already in his young life, Tani had spent nights in fear -- fear for his own life, fear for the lives of his parents. Nerves over a chess match weren't about to cause a single lost z.

The next day, Tani won his fourth match, no sweat. In the semifinal, Tani did something unorthodox: He purposely sacrificed his bishop for a pawn.

Why did you do that? Martinez wondered. I wouldn't have made such a risky move.

It appeared to be a blunder, but Tani knew exactly what he was doing. He remembered studying a 19th-century chess game played by the legendary Paul Morphy, and he knew if he could bait his opponent into taking his bishop, he could win the game.

His opponent gave him a wry smile as he realized -- too late -- why Tani had made that move, the one that would send him to the championship match with a perfect record.

Incredulous, Martinez plugged all of the moves up until the sacrifice of the bishop into an automated chess program on his laptop. After the match, he showed the results to Tani: The strongest move Tani could have made at that point was to sacrifice his bishop. It was aggressive, bold and brave. It was a move most chess players wouldn't even consider.

But Tani is no ordinary chess player. And his journey isn't ordinary, either. Fifteen months earlier, his family had settled into a New York City homeless shelter after fleeing Nigeria. Thirteen months earlier, he couldn't tell a rook from a pawn. That March day, after drawing in the final, he was crowned a state champion. They didn't know it then, but Tani's 8-year-old brain and its ability to think 20 moves ahead on an 8-by-8 chessboard were about to change the Adewumis' lives forever.

"That moment was everything," Martinez says. "I knew then he was meant for greatness."

ON A DREARY December 2016 afternoon, Tani's father, Kayode Adewumi, sat in his dining room chair in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, with his palms on his head, staring at his computer. A poster with the words "No to Western education" and "Kill all Christians" screamed at him from the screen. But what was more terrifying was the logo that accompanied the words -- a logo he could recognize in his sleep. It was Boko Haram.

Four men had come into his printing shop earlier that afternoon and, after handing him a thumb drive, asked him to print 25,000 copies of the poster saved on the drive. Kayode didn't think much about it until this moment, back in his house, with his wife, Oluwatoyin, looking at him, her eyes narrowed and worry smeared across her forehead.

Accepting the business meant he had to work for Boko Haram, a terrorist organization, and that, as a Christian, and a human being, he couldn't bring himself to do. But refusing essentially meant a death sentence for him and his family, especially now that he's seen what the poster says and can identify the four men.

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He could hear Tani, 6, and his older brother, Austin, playing with friends out in the front yard, arguing about who gets to kick the soccer ball, and a fresh wave of fear went through his body.

What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?

Even before that threat, the Adewumis noticed their country changing under the attack of Boko Haram. Ever since the 2014 abduction of 276 girls from a northern Nigerian high school, Boko Haram's attacks on civilians had only increased. In 2015, a bomb blast occurred so close to Oluwatoyin's office that she could feel the heat as security escorted her out of her office. The day before the Boko Haram men came into Kayode's print shop, Tani and Austin had come home from school early -- they were evacuated after Boko Haram sent a message threatening another attack on a school in Abuja. Tani had peppered his parents with questions. "Why were we let off early?" "Who is Boko Haram?" "What is religious extremism?" All the while, his parents were able to shield him. They didn't know how much longer they could keep doing that.

Kayode came up with a plan. When the men come for their posters the next day, he'll tell them he couldn't do the job because his printing press had broken the previous evening. He'll then hand them the flash drive and tell them he hadn't looked at it because he hadn't needed to. Clean lie. He prayed they'd bite and leave his family alone.

They didn't believe him. A week later, when only Oluwatoyin was home and the children were asleep, they showed up at the Adewumis' house looking for Kayode's laptop. They assumed Kayode had seen the poster and saved it to use against them. Let's use Oluwatoyin to send Kayode a message, Oluwatoyin heard them whisper to each other in Arabic.

What they didn't know was this: Oluwatoyin was raised Muslim and spoke Arabic growing up. When she heard this, she knew they were going to kill her or rape her. So she did the one thing she could still do: She knelt and began to pray. Atuasal iilayk -- I'm begging you. She said the Arabic phrase over and over. "Are you a Muslim?" they asked her. "Yes," she whispered, as tears fell down her cheeks. Silence followed her response. They looked at each other, and without saying another word, they exited the house.

A few weeks later, Kayode asked Oluwatoyin to pack a small bag of necessities. Without informing anybody, the family moved to Akure in rural Nigeria, to a house with a tall fence. They hid there, using their savings to get by, hoping Boko Haram would lose track of them so they could eventually go back to living a normal life in that small town.

A few months into their life in Akure, when they were getting ready to go to bed, they heard a noise -- like somebody was shaking their fence. Boko Haram, they realized, had found them. "You've been escaping us for far too long, but we know you are inside, and we know that today you will go to heaven," they heard the group of men yelling from outside. Kayode asked Oluwatoyin to go to their kids' bedroom and pray hard, because nothing short of a miracle could save them now.

Kayode knew it would take a while for them to knock down the fence, but a back door attached to the fence led directly to the kitchen. If they found the back door, they'd get inside within minutes. He came up with a plan: He would push open the kitchen door and announce himself. They'd follow him and leave his family alone. It worked -- even if by accident. When they heard him, Kayode believes they mistook him for the police and yelled, "It's the police, let's go," and jumped into a car and fled. Kayode stayed outside the kitchen door all night, waiting to see whether they'd come back.

As daylight broke, Kayode wearily walked back into the house to find Oluwatoyin calling him frantically. The kids, who were asleep before, were now awake, fear etched on their faces.

Their faces confirmed the one thing he'd been thinking over and over in his head. They had to leave the country for good -- and they had to do it now.

TANI IS SEATED in his second-grade classroom in PS 116 in Manhattan on a cold February 2018 day. The school dedicated one period a week -- every Thursday -- to a special chess class taught by Martinez. Kids break off into pairs, getting ready to play games monitored by Martinez. That day, Tani sits across from Martinez and learns the rules of chess, asking questions throughout the match. Martinez sees Tani pick up the game at a remarkably fast rate, his eyes twinkling as he moves the pieces. At the end of class, Martinez asks the children to finish 50 puzzles -- online chess matches -- by the next class. He hopes to spend more time with Tani in subsequent weeks to get him up to speed. But at the end of the week, Tani would come to him with 500 puzzles. "I loved it, so I kept going," he said.

Tani loved the challenge. He loved that no two games looked the same. He loved that he had a set number of pieces he could control. He loved that he could attack, and if he did it well, he could win.

"He was in love," Martinez says. "It was like watching a flower sprout in front of my eyes."

Martinez was astonished by Tani's learning curve and invited him to his chess club. But there was one problem: The Adewumis couldn't afford the club fees.

The night Boko Haram tried to break into his family's house in Akure in June 2017 was the night Kayode decided to leave for the United States. They had previously applied for and received visitors visas to see family in Dallas. I just wanted to visit my family, but now I have to flee to the land of the dreams, Kayode thought. The kids were cautiously excited, America was the promised land, according to the movies and TV shows they'd watched. Maybe it is a land of the future too, a future where they're free and not scared to go to sleep.

A few weeks later, Kayode bought their plane tickets and fearfully peered out the window on their ride to the airport, making sure they weren't being followed. All clear. They boarded the plane and within hours were flying across the Atlantic, all the while looking out the window to take one last look at their country, not knowing when they'd return, if ever.

They spent their first few months living with family in Dallas, but things turned sour and they made the painful decision to move again. Oluwatoyin had a childhood friend in the Bronx who said he'd give the Adewumis a jump start in the city. They bought four bus tickets, packed up and headed north. It took them 40 hours to get from Dallas to New York City in December 2017. After hopping from the childhood friend's home to the basement of their church's pastor, Phillip Falayi, they made their way to an intake center run by the Department of Homeless Services. They needed something more stable for Tani and Austin, and getting help from the government seemed like the best plan. Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) offered them accommodation in a shelter in Manhattan.

They didn't have much (Kayode had to go back to Nigeria for a few days to sell his printing machinery and bring back money for his family), but they were thankful for a roof over their heads and three meals a day. Tani and Austin enrolled in schools, and Kayode found a job as a night cleaner in a restaurant in the Bronx, working from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. for $6 an hour. He was the CEO of his company in Nigeria, but this would have to do for now. He had a family to take care of.

In less than a year, they'd moved five times, and every time, Tani packed up his bags, not uttering a single word of complaint. Things can only get better from here, right? he thought to himself, every time.

And the sixth time, he was right. Because it was the move that brought chess into his life.

The chess club needed fees that the Adewumis couldn't afford. So Martinez, after a conversation with the club director, had the fees waived. Within weeks, Tani was studying 100-year-old matches, spending hours poring over chess openings and combinations. Martinez recalls Tani memorizing an entire game played by Morphy -- one of Martinez's favorite chess players -- from the 1850s. Tani started playing in local tournaments on Saturdays. On Sundays, he begged his mom to let him out of church early so he could attend more tournaments. Sometimes Martinez accompanied him, other times his mom did. When a tournament required an entry fee -- usually around $50 -- Martinez spoke to the organizers and got it waived. Between February 2018 and March 2019, after promising performances in the New York City Mayor's Cup and the city championship, Tani had risen to 1,200 ratings points (read: He would checkmate you in eight moves) -- a feat that was incredibly hard to achieve even for children playing since they were 3 or 4 years old.

"Most chess players hit a halt in their rankings when they get to that point, and they have to train more intensely to get over that peak," Martinez says. "But Tani kept progressing steadily from the beginning."

For a while, Tani kept chess to himself. Even his class teacher, Kyrie Gilmore, had no idea that he could play, let alone that he was getting so good that people were starting to call him a prodigy. After Martinez told her during a regular chat, she approached Tani and asked him how he felt about the pressure he was suddenly facing from the chess community. "I feel fine. I play because I love chess," he said to her. Even then, "he wasn't scared of losing, and that gave him a level of confidence to become an attacking player," Gilmore says. "Plus, he has a charming personality."

For a lot of children his age, even the ranked ones, chess is fun, chess is engaging. But for Tani, chess represented what he found in America: control.

"Tani used chess as a teddy bear when he first started, you know?" Martinez says. "He found it, and he held on tight."

But who would ever believe that a teddy bear could save his family?

IT'S APRIL 2020, and the Adewumis are sheltering in place during the coronavirus pandemic. Through FaceTime, they're giving me a virtual tour of their Lower West Side apartment. There's a chessboard in every corner, one on a side table near the living room window, one on the coffee table and one roll-up chess sheet on the living room floor.

"People from all over the world keep sending Tani chessboards," Kayode says.

The walls are adorned with framed awards Tani has received over the past year, and Oluwatoyin points to the wall near the TV, where a picture of a smiling Tani from a New York Times article hangs.

After a full day of online Zoom classes, Tani is in front of his computer in the living room, playing a game of chess before the e-tournament he participates in every evening. His older brother, Austin, is sitting adjacent to him in front of another computer, finishing up his homework for the day. Kayode, a real estate agent now, has been working remotely since mid-March, and Oluwatoyin, a home health care aide, has been asked to stay home.

Oluwatoyin flashes the view outside their apartment. A basketball court sits empty. A lone person, wearing a mask, walks a dog. "That basketball court is usually packed, but I haven't seen a single soul in weeks," Oluwatoyin says.

Tani has been obsessively reading the Pee Wee Scouts series, a children's literary collection by Judy Delton, and will launch into stories every day. Tani misses playing soccer outside and playing chess face-to-face, because the "way you move, the way you react after a piece, says a lot about how you're doing on the board," he says.

Oluwatoyin points out that they've been through worse, now it's all about staying healthy. "We're thankful we can order groceries online and it gets delivered to us."

They moved into the apartment a few days after Tani won the New York championship in March 2019. When Tani woke up the next morning and saw his face in New York Times for Kids, he was tickled. He cut out the article, took it to school and read it in front of his class. His class had been reading NYT Kids all year long, so to see Tani's face on it was exciting. "It was this really tangible thing, like, 'Hey, we read this all the time, now this is happening to our classmate,' so it made it a real-life learning experience in a beautiful way," Gilmore says.

The story was read by millions of people, and a GoFundMe page was established with the hope to raise money -- $10,000 -- to move the Adewumis out of the homeless shelter. Seemingly every time they refreshed the page, they'd received another $1,000. Within the first few days, they'd made $100,000. And then NBC wanted them on the "Today" show and the total soared to nearly $260,000. Then two anonymous donors came forward -- one who offered to pay a year's worth of rent (which has now ended) for their new house, and one who wanted to buy them a car.

The entire family showed up to their leasing agent's office to sign their first lease in America.

The family's story reached the ears of former President Bill Clinton, who sent a note inviting them to meet with him in New York. And Tani, like always, peppered Clinton with questions -- about the presidency and his life afterward. The chess prodigy also was invited to the 2019 U.S. Championships in St. Louis, where he played against world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana during a private event.

"At the end of the day, he is still a 9-year-old kid who smiles a lot, finishes his homework on time and spends time with his friends," Gilmore says. "Fame just became something he was a recipient of. He still was the same curious, happy person that he was before that."

The Adewumis' asylum request is still pending -- the next hearing is scheduled for June 2022 -- but it feels as if they've finally found firm footing. With their rent also taken care of, they wanted to do more with the quarter-million dollars they had received. So they set up the Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation, a nonprofit to help immigrant families in need. "Even when they didn't have a lot, they'd come to church every Sunday and give away food they cooked or bags, pencil kits and books for kids -- that's the kind of people they were," Pastor Falayi says.

Soon, Tani will see his story come to life on the big screen. Paramount and South African comedian Trevor Noah are making a movie based on the Adewumis' story and his recently published book, "My Name Is Tani ... And I Believe in Miracles."

"This is all so strange, but it feels wonderfully great to have a movie made out of [my] life," Tani says.

Even through the pandemic, Tani has been improving at chess, and a few weeks ago he reached 2,200 ratings points, pushing him to the master level. He can't go to the club or compete at tournaments, but he's been participating in online tournaments, including one organized by Martinez in which 60 chess players across the city compete for an hour every evening. Martinez admits that Tani beats him more often than he beats Tani.

"Coach, you ready to lose to me today?" Tani says before one of their matches begins. Martinez smiles and says, "Oh, you are on!"

Growing up, fear and upheaval were Tani's constant companions. Chess changed that. With his indefatigable curiosity and his aggressive style of play, he has given his family stable footing. Now he wants more. "I want to become the youngest grandmaster in the world," he says.

He has just under three years to achieve that (the record is held by Russia's Sergey Karjakin at 12 years and 7 months). And if he does -- which he very much is on pace to do -- he would become not only the youngest grandmaster but also the fourth black grandmaster (among a pool of about 1,300 grandmasters) and the second African American to accomplish the feat.

"In chess, it doesn't matter if you're black or white; if you attack and defend well, you have an equal chance of winning -- and that's what's so beautiful about it," Tani says and smiles.

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From homeless refugee to chess prodigy, 9-year-old dreams of becoming youngest grandmaster - ESPN

By: PTI | Mumbai | Published: May 23, 2020 5:09:20 pm Viswanathan Anand is a five-times world champion. (Source: File Photo)

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand feels the advent of computers has changed the way players have approached chess over the years, with the two opponents sitting in front of the board remaining the only constant in the game.

Talking about his journey, the former world champion said he had to work hard to become the player he is today.

I was six years old when my older brother and sister were playing chess, and then I went to my mom and asked her to teach me as well. My progress as a chess player wasnt sudden, it came through lots of hard work over many years, Anand said on Star Sports show Mind Masters.

The chess I learnt in the 80s, we no longer play chess like that. The introduction of computers has changed the approach, the way you study completely. Only the two players in front of the board has not changed, he added.

Anand said chess requires you to constantly study the opponents game and gauge whats going on in their minds.

In chess, you dont beat the board. Its more important to beat the player on the other side. Everyone thinks you make the best moves, but its more about who makes the last mistake on the board, Anand said.

You need to constantly put yourself in the minds of the opponents and study their game along with your own, he added.

The 50-year-old said he hits the gym to release the pent up tension in the body after every game.

You cannot pump your fist and theres no emotional release in a game like chess. After a game I always go to the gym not for fitness but to calm down and the stress goes away.

Anand said the 1987 World Junior chess championship and the 2017 World Rapid Championship are two of the most important tournaments of his career.

Winning the first World Junior in 1987 was a match I will never forget, the feeling of overcoming the Russians gave me great pride.

And, winning the World Rapid Chess Championship in 2017, at a time in my career when I was contemplating retirement, that win came just at the right time and gave me great satisfaction.

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Introduction of computers has changed the approach to chess: V Anand - The Indian Express