Tunde Onakoya is a Nigerian chess player and founder of chess in slums Africa, he holds the Guinness world record for the longest marathon of chess played, he was born and brought up in ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria.
BACKGROUND: he learnt how to play chess in a barber’s shop in Lagos where he grew up, coming from a very poor background, Tunde found it difficult to pay for his fees in school and his mum offered to work for a school in exchange for his school fees.
EDUCATION: The chess master has a diploma in computer science at the yaba college of technology, here he was a gold medalist representing the school in Nigeria polytechnic games and also he won the RCCG chess championship, he also won the national friends of chess and also the chevron chess open.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION: Onakoya has been featured on CNN Africa voices and he is a member of the New York city based non profit ‘ the gift of chess’ he is ranked as the number 13 greatest chess players in Nigeria and he is a recognized holder of the Guinness world records, Tunde has organized a number of interventions for Children living in slums in Nigeria and Africa in General where these children are engaged in a two week that has been put in place to unlock their potential through the game of chess while learning to read, write and acquire basic literacy skills.
CHESS IN SLUMS: Tunde started chess in September 2018, it started as a volunteer driven non-profit organization that is aimed at empowering young Nigerians in slums to acquire basic literacy skills and education through chess, in 2020 the organization partnered with chess.com as an educational strategy for classrooms. Over 200 children had been trained by the organization and 20 of them have gotten lifelong sponsorships through school, in may 2021, one of Tunde’s trainee met and played with the governor of Lagos state.
GUINNESS WORLD RECORD: On the 20th of April 2024,Tunde broke the Guinness world record for the the longest marathon chess play which he played for over 60 hours, the competition took place at the times square, New York in United States, he started by playing to surpass the previous holder who played for 56 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds which was set by a Norwegian player Hailvard Haug Flatebo in 2018, his initial target was to play for 58 hours but was later pushed to play for a complete 60 hours.
Onakoya’s initial intentions were not to just break the Guinness world record but a mission of purpose which aimed to raise 1million dollars for the education of children in Nigeria and Africa at large, particularly those without access to quality and improved education, while trying to set a new record he got support from Nigerian communities in the US, the former president of Nigeria Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Kashim Shettima and afrobeat artists Davido and Adekunle Gold also showed up to give him support and Davido even adorned him with the signature 30bg chain as a sign of solidarity and support.
