After 60 hours of play, Nigerian Tunde Onakoya breaks the world record for chess marathon in Times Square – Libération

2024-04-21 15:27:01

The 29-year-old strategist played 60 hours in Times Square from Wednesday to Friday evening, expected to enter the Guinness World Records. Beyond the feat, the objective was to raise funds for underprivileged children in Africa.

Sixty hours spent moving pieces on a board. All without losing once. Tunde Onakoya did not steal his chess world record set this weekend in New York. The Nigerian player had started his chess marathon on Wednesday, taking on Shawn Martinez, an American chess champion, in accordance with the Guinness World Record guidelines that any attempt to break the record must be made by two players who play continuously for the entire duration of the game. The American should thus be co-holder of the record.

As the event progressed, support grew online and onsite. Onakoya had to stay focused despite the African sounds and cheers from the crowd, which included Nigerian-American singer Davido. Supported by this enthusiastic audience, he exceeded the 58 hours of play mark that he had set for himself on Friday, around 10:30 p.m. local time (4:30 a.m. Paris time). And while there, Tunde Onakoya continued to work his brains out to reach the 60-hour mark, around 12:40 a.m. Saturday (6:30 a.m. Paris time).

The Guinness World Record has yet to publicly comment on Onakoya’s performance. It sometimes takes weeks for the organization to confirm a new record. So far, the previous brand established in 2018 by the two Norwegians Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad, peaked at 56 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds.

The emotion moment Tunde Onakoya got to 58hours and he cried 🥹❤️!!

He has set the record, 58 straight hours non stop chess game ♟️🇳🇬🎊🎉

Raise am Raise am Raise am !!! pic.twitter.com/osy86NtmtV

— Oyindamola🙄 (@dammiedammie35) April 20, 2024

“It’s a lot of emotion, it’s too much, I don’t have the words, but I know that I have achieved something incredible,” confided the 29-year-old, very emotional once the counter stopped. “Last night at three in the morning I was ready to give up and go to bed, but there are Nigerians came from all over the world to see me, people from London, from Tennessee, no one left, They kept dancing and singing, I couldn’t let them down,” added the 29-year-old.

Known figure in his country

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu congratulated the player in a statement on Saturday, saying he had “tolled the gong of Nigeria’s resilience, self-confidence and ingenuity.” “Tunde Onakoya has demonstrated a talent customary among young Nigerians, the audacity to shake things up, to thwart the impossible and to propose innovations and solutions to the nation’s challenges, even in the most remote corners. disadvantaged,” added the head of state.

Tunde Onakoya is a well-known figure in Nigeria where he launched the Chess in Slums project in September 2018 in the sprawling slum of Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos, whose residents often feel excluded of the activity and business of the megacity.

The aim of this club is to offer young people from Ikorodu, many of whom are not in school and working to help their families, a space where they can learn to play chess. By breaking the chess marathon world record, Tunde Onakoya hopes to raise a million dollars to help underprivileged children in Africa. More than 10 million school-age children are out of school in the West African country, one of the highest rates in the world.