A recent story that has received attention in both the chess press and in the larger mainstream world is that of 8-year-old Nigerian refugee Tanitoluwa Adewumi, who learned to play when he was seven and just won the New York State K-3 Championship. More details on Chess.com, the New York Times, and in this WaPo op-ed by Garry Kasparov (HT: Marc Beishon for this last link).
Congrats to the youngster; the only drawback is that if he continues to develop apace we're all going to have to learn to spell "Tanitoluwa Adewumi". (The world keeps getting revenge for all the people who have had to spell my last name over the years.)