NEW YORK — A Nigerian chess champion and baby training advocate is trying to play chess nonstop for 58 hours in New York Metropolis’s Instances Sq. to interrupt the worldwide report for the longest chess marathon.
Tunde Onakoya, 29, hopes to boost $1 million for youngsters’s training throughout Africa. He’s taking part in towards Shawn Martinez, an American chess champion, in step with Guinness World File tips that any try to interrupt the report have to be made by two gamers who would play repeatedly for your entire length.
Onakoya had performed chess for 42 hours by 10:00 a.m. GMT on Friday. Help is rising on-line and on the scene, the place a mix of African music is protecting onlookers and supporters entertained amid cheers and applause.
The present chess marathon report is 56 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds, achieved in 2018 by Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad, each from Norway.
The report try is “for the goals of tens of millions of kids throughout Africa with out entry to training,” stated Onakoya, who based Chess in Slums Africa in 2018. The group desires to assist training of no less than 1 million youngsters in slums throughout the continent.
“My vitality is at 100% proper now as a result of my individuals are right here supporting me with music,” Onakoya stated Thursday night after the gamers crossed the 24-hour mark.
On Onakoya’s menu: A number of water and jollof rice, certainly one of West Africa’s finest recognized dishes.
For each hour of sport performed, Onakoya and his opponent get solely 5 minutes’ break. The breaks are typically grouped collectively, and Onakoya makes use of them to meet up with Nigerians and New Yorkers cheering him on. He even joins in with their dancing typically.
A complete of $22,000 was raised throughout the first 20 hours of the try, stated Taiwo Adeyemi, Onakoya’s supervisor.
“The assist has been overwhelming from Nigerians within the U.S., international leaders, celebrities and tons of of passersby,” he stated.
Onakoya’s try is carefully adopted in Nigeria the place he usually organizes chess competitions for younger individuals residing on the streets to spice up his trigger. Greater than 10 million youngsters are out of faculty within the West African nation — one of many world’s highest charges.
Amongst those that have publicly supported him are celebrities and public workplace holders, together with Nigeria’s former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who wrote to Onakoya on X, previously Twitter: “Bear in mind your personal highly effective phrases: ‘It’s attainable to do nice issues from a small place.’”
The Guinness World File group has but to publicly remark about Onakoya’s try, which may attain 58 hours by midnight on Friday. It typically takes weeks for the group to verify any new report.
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This model corrects that Osinbajo is Nigeria’s former vice-president, not present vice-president.
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Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria.