The world record for playing chess for 60 hours

Nigerian chess champion Tunde Onakoya wants to help disadvantaged children in Africa. For this, the 29-year-old chose chess. He set a world record by playing chess to raise funds for children. He had to play chess for 60 consecutive hours to make this record.

 The chess match for Tunde Onakoya was held at Times Square in New York City, USA.  Onakoya played chess there last Wednesday.  He embarked on this chess marathon to raise $1 million for the education of African children.

 Before Tunde Onakoya, this record was held by Norway’s Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad.  This record was held by them since 2018 by playing chess for 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 37 seconds. To break the record, Onakoya would have had to play chess longer than that. But after starting on Wednesday, he played chess for 60 hours straight until 12:40 AM local time on Saturday.

Reacting to the world record holder, Tunde Onakoya said, ‘I don’t know the words to express how I feel right now. But know that I have done something truly worth mentioning. Many Nigerians come from different parts of the world. The whole time I played, they encouraged me by singing and dancing, which made it easier.’

 Onakoya’s opponent in this chess marathon was American chess player Shawn Martinez.  They play chess according to the rules of the Guinness World Records authority.  According to the rules, chess should be played without any breaks.

 Taiyo Adeyemi, Onakoya’s personal assistant, said that in the first 20 hours of the game, $22,000 was collected.  However, he could not immediately give an account of how much money was raised in the entire game.

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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu congratulated Tunde Onakoya for holding the world record.

Onakoya reflected that by setting this record. However, the Guinness World Records authority has not yet officially commented on Onakoya’s record. The organization sometimes takes several weeks to acknowledge a record.

Source: Al Jazeera

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