NEW YORK — A Nigerian chess champion and kid training recommend is making an attempt to play games chess nonstop for 58 hours in Unutilized York Town’s Instances Sq. to split the worldwide document for the longest chess marathon.
Tunde Onakoya, 29, hopes to boost $1 million for kids’s training throughout Africa. He’s enjoying in opposition to Shawn Martinez, an American chess champion, in order with Guinness Global Report tips that any struggle to split the document should be made via two gamers who would play games often for all of the period.
Onakoya had performed chess for 42 hours via 10:00 a.m. GMT on Friday. Backup is rising on-line and on the scene, the place a mix of African track is protecting onlookers and supporters entertained amid i appreciate it and applause.
The flow chess marathon document is 56 hours, 9 mins and 37 seconds, accomplished in 2018 via Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad, each from Norway.
The document struggle is “for the dreams of millions of children across Africa without access to education,” mentioned Onakoya, who based Chess in Slums Africa in 2018. The group needs to help training of no less than 1 million kids in slums around the continent.
“My energy is at 100% right now because my people are here supporting me with music,” Onakoya mentioned Thursday night time then the gamers crossed the 24-hour mark.
On Onakoya’s menu: Plenty of aqua and jollof rice, one in every of West Africa’s highest recognized dishes.
For each and every while of recreation performed, Onakoya and his opponent get handiest 5 mins’ split. The breaks are every now and then grouped in combination, and Onakoya makes use of them to meet up with Nigerians and Unutilized Yorkers cheering him on. He even joins in with their dancing every now and then.
A complete of $22,000 was once raised throughout the first 20 hours of the struggle, mentioned Taiwo Adeyemi, Onakoya’s supervisor.
“The help has been overwhelming from Nigerians within the U.S., international leaders, celebrities and masses of passersby,” he said.
Onakoya’s attempt is closely followed in Nigeria where he regularly organizes chess competitions for young people living on the streets to boost his cause. More than 10 million children are out of school in the West African country — one of the world’s highest rates.
Among those who have publicly supported him are celebrities and public office holders, including Nigeria’s former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who wrote to Onakoya on X, formerly Twitter: “Remember your own powerful words: ‘It is possible to do great things from a small place.’”
The Guinness Global Report group has but to publicly remark about Onakoya’s struggle, which might achieve 58 hours via nighttime on Friday. It every now and then takes weeks for the group to substantiate any fresh document.
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This model corrects that Osinbajo is Nigeria’s former vice-president, now not flow vice-president.
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Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria.