Record Breaking Chess Champion’s Weekend in New York City

Everyone has heard it before in some way, shape, or form; "everything's bigger in New York City". In many ways this is true, NYC in many regards is the be-all, end-all, THE place to be. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

With this idea in mind, it's kind of hard to imagine another place better to make a name for yourself or say achieve an incredible accomplishment. Well, one man did achieve such over the weekend in the big city, in fact, this individual made New York City's Time Square the scene of his record-breaking accomplishment.

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Chess Champion Set's New World Record

The man I am referring to is named Tunde Onakoya and over the weekend, he set a new world record for playing the game of chess. The 29-year-old chess champion originally from Nigeria, played against American chess champion Seth Martinez, and together the two played the game for an astonishing 60 hours!!!

60 hours...if you do the math, that's two and a half days of playing chess. According to a report from NBC: New York, the two men shattered the previous record of 56 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds held by Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad of Norway who set that record in 2018.

The report also states that the Onakoya's original plan was to play the game for 58 hours, but both continued to keep playing until they hit 60. The two also agreed to play under guidelines established by Guinness World Records. By the time the men had stopped playing, it was 12:40 a.m. on Saturday morning, meaning the two started their epic attempt on Wednesday.

Onakoya used social media to provide updates along the way for the record-breaking event, and while there's no doubt that the game happened, the most important voice on the matter has yet to issue a statement. This however could be par for the course with Guinness World Record as "it sometimes takes weeks for the organization to confirm any new record".

Playing for a Cause

It is not uncommon for events of this nature to have a goal other than breaking a record. This is true with this record-breaking event as well, as Onakoya was playing for a cause and this cause you can say is bigger than the record itself.

According to USA Today, Onakoya founded a charity in 2018 called 'Chess in Slums Africa'. The charity works to teach children across Africa about the game of chess and promotes children's education in Africa, among other things, which you may read about by following this link (Chess in Slums Africa).

Going into the day, Onakoya had the goal of raising $1 million dollars for his charity and according to NBC, $22,000 had been raised in the first 24 hours. This is also not the first time Onakoya has used his impressive skills in the game of chess to benefit charity. Back in February of this year, Onakoya participated in a marathon event at the Digital–Life – Design conference in Berlin.

At the conference, he played an astounding 10 games of chess simultaneously, and not only that but he also won each game.

During Onakoya's incredible 60-hour affair he did manage to have some very brief downtime. According to NBC for every hour of chess that was played between Onakoya and Martinez, they were given a five (5) minute break. The two were able to group the breaks together and in that time Onakoya interacted with other Nigerians who came to support him, in addition to eating, hydrating, etc.

Onakoya received support and praise from numerous entities during the event both in person and online. This includes support from the current Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The former Nigerian VP summed up Onakoya's accomplishments and work via X (FKA: Twitter) where he wrote to Onakoya  "Remember your own powerful words: 'It is possible to do great things from a small place".