Nigerian-born CM Chikwere Onyekwere (aka “Chichi”), the highest-rated hustler in New York’s Washington Square Park, was detained by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on Tuesday, August 25, and is currently in the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. At the age of 20, he was the youngest player to win the national championship in Nigeria.
Currently in the 99th percentile of US Chess-rated players, the 41-year-old is known as a consistent and visible presence in the park, which was frequented by the young Bobby Fischer and immortalized in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. Onyekwere recorded and posted videos of his chess battles on his Instagram page, under the handle @viciousattackingchess, as well as on his website. In addition to playing games for money, he also gave lessons.
Onyekwere at the 2006 U.S. Open. Photo: Daaim Shabazz.
He has a 2104 FIDE rating and a 2211 US Chess rating, and his most recent upset was a win against GM Vladimir Akopian in the 2023 North American Open in Las Vegas. Akopian won the 2026 U.S. Senior Championship just over a month ago. Onyekwere also told Chess.com he’d beaten French GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi in the park, though we could not verify that game.
Onyekwere’s future, even in the short term, is unclear as he seeks legal representation in Texas. His priority, he told Chess.com over the phone, is finding a good lawyer. He explained that he’s lost his students and his apartment, and that he’ll have to start from scratch when he gets out. “If everything works out, I would like to go out and play in tournaments,” said the candidate master, who still harbors hopes of climbing to the grandmaster title.
If everything works out, I would like to go out and play in tournaments. —Chikwere “Chichi” Onyekwere
Onyekwere, a promising junior chess player, first came to the United States in the early 2000s. His older sister, Ms. Mary Onyekwere Fawaz, told Chess.com that he learned to play chess from his late father, High Chief Godwin Ukandu Onyekwere. The father sponsored his son’s travels for chess, which included international trips to the 2001 World Youth Chess Championship in Spain and the 2002 World Chess Olympiad in Slovenia, where he represented his country as a 17-year-old.
By 2004, he had already won three under-14 national titles and the Junior Chess Championship of Nigeria, as reported by The Chess Drum. At the age of 20, he returned to Nigeria to win the national title at the Nigerian Breweries Chess Championship and was the youngest player in history to do so at the time.
Onyekwere studied civil engineering at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria for three years, without completing the four-year program, before relocating to the United States. He spent time in Minnesota and Texas before finally coming to New York in 2005. He believes he had the skill to become a grandmaster, but didn’t have a coach. At some point, Onyekwere stopped playing chess out of frustration, made some Nigerian friends, and started a business.
In 2014, he and his sister Uchechi Onyekwere were charged in a $13 million medical fraud scheme. Healthfirst, a not-for-profit managed care organization affiliated with six large hospitals, was the victim of billing fraud. The siblings were registered owners and officers of a durable medical equipment company located in Brooklyn that submitted fake claims to Healthfirst for reimbursement for equipment, $4 million of which was paid. According to the FBI’s report, the operation took place from approximately 2008 through at least the end of 2013.
“As alleged, the defendants used fictitious companies and fraudulent claims to steal very real health care dollars,” said then-United States Attorney Loretta Lynch in 2014. “The Medicare and Medicaid systems serve our most vulnerable citizens, and those who seek to steal those tax dollars will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” In 2015, Onyekwere, who was already in jail as a pretrial detainee, pleaded guilty.
Public information on CourtListener states that his sister’s final judgment was on September 30, 2015: imprisonment for 21 months with three years of supervised release, as well as a restitution amount of $337,348.84. For Chikwere, however, CourtListener does not list a final judgment. He told Chess.com he spent about three years in jail, from 2014 to 2017.
Onyekwere facing GM Awonder Liang in Sitges, Spain in 2017 after his incarceration. Photo: Sunway Sitges Chess Festival.
Onyekwere said he had a green card, but in 2017, he was pressured to sign a document and be deported back to Nigeria. In 2020, he was arrested by immigration officers at the Mexico border and applied for asylum. After 10 months, he was released due to his pending asylum application.
Because he was deported earlier, he didn’t qualify for asylum, but in 2024 he was granted a CAT Deferral (Deferral of Removal under the Convention Against Torture), a temporary form of protection that stops the U.S. government from deporting a person to a country where they would likely face torture. With this protection, he was able to work and live in the U.S.
Since 2021, Onyekwere had been a daily presence at Washington Square Park and worked as a chess coach. He reported to ICE annually in December 2024 and 2025. This year, he was told to come in August—earlier than the regular time in December. When he reported to 26 Federal Plaza on August 25, he was detained.
Onyekwere told Chess.com that he “never had any issues” in previous meetings. “I think it’s the midterm [elections] coming up.” A CAT deferral bars the government from removing Onyekwere to Nigeria, but under federal regulations, it does not limit ICE’s authority to detain him. He said he was moved from New York to New Jersey, sent back to New York, and put on a plane at JFK Airport without knowing the destination. Next thing he knew, he was in Texas.
Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Photo: Texas Immigration Law Council.
While his time in detention has been difficult, Onyekwere shared a piece of good news: he was able to play a blindfold game of chess—that is, a game against someone else without a chessboard. “I definitely need help to hire a good lawyer,” he said. “I have not done anything wrong, but because of politics, it’s just horrible.” He has a 12-year-old son in New Jersey who lives with his mother. He acknowledged Mary Kennedy, Maddie Weber, Father Jonah Teller, Anthony Kozikowski, and Alan Stolyarov as a few community members who have supported him.
Asked what he’d like readers to know about himself, Onyekwere responded: “I want people to know that I’m a professional chess player. I am using the power of chess to stay calm and help others.” Besides help with getting a lawyer, he said he’d love to have a chessboard and chess books while in detention, “something tactical.”
I am using the power of chess to stay calm and help others. —Chikwere “Chichi” Onyekwere
Effect On The Community
Local players and content creators have spread awareness of Onyekwere’s detention in the last week. Chessoptics made the following Instagram post on Monday, August 31, saying, “I would like to get the word out for anyone who can help.”
Maddie Weber, a local university student and content creator (@maddieplayschess), told Chess.com Onyekwere is “a friendly face who represents the positive chess environment of the park—and it’s Chichi! You’re going to play a game for money, there’s not going to be anything crazy about it. It’s just going to be a Washington Square Park chess game.”
Gabriella Bass, senior producer at Ackerley Creative, told Chess.com that they are editing and soon releasing a video about Onyekwere as part of their “Over the Board” series profiling chess players. She said, “A big thing was he had the potential for grandmaster status, but he’s never really had the opportunities to be sponsored,” pointing out how inaccessible the highest titles can be in chess if you don’t have the resources to travel and play in tournaments. She clarified that this was based on their conversations and that she’s not an authority on what it takes.
Tunde Onakoya, a renowned Nigerian chess player, coach, and founder of Chess In Slums Africa, met Onyekwere twice in New York City. In 2025, Onyekwere came to support Onakoya as he and NM Shawn Martinez broke the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon after playing continuously for 64 hours. Onakoya returned in 2026 and played a few games in Washington Square Park. Onyekwere also came to support Promoting Queens, which raises money to support girls’ chess education in Africa.
You can watch them play a game below, where Onyekwere served what he calls his world-famous “Chichi Park Fried Rice” on the board, “EXTRA SPICY,” a metaphor for a heated game of chess.
Onakoya told Chess.com, “He’s a good person who loves chess who’s trying to really find his way back. It’s just quite unfortunate what has happened, and I hope that we can give him all of the support that he needs.”
Ms. Fawaz, his older sister, said, “His entering the U.S. was a result of how bright he was. He had dreams, he had a future, he had focus.” She went on: “Life has its stages. It’s a pity he found himself in this situation. I think 2017, 2018, by the grace of God he… came out free, hoping that he’s actually free as a young man… it’s so heartbreaking; it’s so painful to hear again that at this point in time such pain is happening again.”
It’s so heartbreaking; it’s so painful to hear again that at this point in time such pain is happening again.
—Ms. Mary Onyekwere Fawaz, Onyekwere’s sister
Onyekwere at the 2017 Sunway Sitges tournament. Photo: Sunway Sitges.
Peter Kozikowski created the following GoFundMe page to support Onyekwere with legal fees. Chess.com is not involved with the collection or distribution of those funds. Peter’s cousin, the “street philosopher and urban chess educator” Anthony Kozikowski (commonly known as “Cheese”), has led the search for a lawyer. He told Chess.com, “I realize he has an amazing heart; he extends kindness to all of the people receiving it, and the community that stands behind him is evidence of that claim.”
Alan Stolyarov has helped the effort as well—cleaning out his apartment after he was detained, for instance. He said, “We’re all fighting like heaven and hell to get him back. It’s just the fact that no one else on this world would do something like this, but then we are; hopefully it inspires some more people.”
