Nigeria’s Tunde Onakoya sets global chess record with 60 hour nonstop game
Al Jazeera
The 29-year-old chess player and child education advocate played in part to raise money for underprivileged children.
A Nigerian chess champion has broken the world record for the longest chess marathon after playing unbeaten for more than 58 hours in New York City’s Times Square to raise money for underprivileged children.
Tunde Onakoya, 29, embarked on his marathon session on Wednesday, hoping to raise $1 million for children’s education across Africa through the record attempt.
He had set out to play the royal game for 58 hours but continued until he reached 60 hours at about 12:40am (04:40GMT) on Saturday, surpassing the current chess marathon record of 56 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds, achieved in 2018 by Norwegians Hallvard Haug Flatebo and Sjur Ferkingstad.
“I can’t process a lot of the emotions I feel right now. I don’t have the right words for them. But I know we did something truly remarkable,” he told the AFP news agency.
“[At] 3am last night, that was the moment I was ready to just give it all up… but Nigerians travelled from all over the world. And they were with me overnight,” he continued.
