{"id":64498,"date":"2025-04-20T18:36:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T18:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=64498"},"modified":"2025-04-20T18:36:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T18:36:05","slug":"tunde-onakoya-breaks-global-chess-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/04\/20\/tunde-onakoya-breaks-global-chess-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunde Onakoya Breaks Global Chess Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nigerian chess maestro and education advocate, Tunde Onakoya, has set a new global milestone by breaking the world record for the longest chess marathon, playing continuously for over 61 hours in New York City\u2019s iconic Times Square.<\/p>\n<p>Onakoya, 30, alongside his playing partner, US chess master Shawn Martinez, surpassed the previous record of 56 hours and 9 minutes set by Norwegian duo Hallvard Haug Flateb\u00f8 and Sjur Ferkingstad in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>He is now aiming for 70 hours of uninterrupted gameplay to crown the historic feat.<\/p>\n<p>Announcing the record-breaking moment on social media, Onakoya declared: \u201cFor all the dreamers! We\u2019ve officially BROKEN THE RECORD with my brother.\u201d But beyond the record, his message was clear\u2014it is a campaign for hope and education.<\/p>\n<p>The chess marathon is part of a bold fundraising campaign to build the largest free preschool in Africa for homeless children, under the banner of his nonprofit, Chess in Slums Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative has drawn global support, including backing from Afrobeats icon Davido and Nigeria\u2019s Vice President, Kashim Shettima.<\/p>\n<p>Despite battling fatigue, Onakoya remained focused. \u201cThe hardest part isn\u2019t the lack of sleep\u2014it\u2019s carrying the weight of so many dreams. But that\u2019s also the fuel,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n<p>Onakoya\u2019s rise from a Lagos barbershop where he first learned chess, to global acclaim, has inspired millions.<\/p>\n<p>His mission remains the same\u2014turning one chessboard into a million dreams.<\/p>\n<p>While official confirmation from Guinness World Records is awaited, the world is already celebrating a new symbol of African excellence and purpose-driven resilience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Nigerian chess maestro and education advocate, Tunde Onakoya, has set a new global milestone by breaking the world record for the longest chess marathon, playing continuously for over 61 hours in New York City\u2019s iconic Times Square. Onakoya, 30, alongside his playing partner, US chess master Shawn Martinez, surpassed the previous record [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":64499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-64498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64500,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64498\/revisions\/64500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}