Nigerian chess champion Tunde Onakoya is trying to break the world record for the longest chess marathon! The record he is set to break is 58 hours.
Tunde Onakoya has already been playing in the chess marathon for approximately 44 hours straight. This is at the time of this writing. Starting on April 17th and going until April 19th, the event is happening in the famous Times Square in New York City.
So far, Onakoya has beaten everyone he’s played, including a really good chess player from New York named Shawn Martinez.
Onakoya’s manager, Taiwo, says the official rules allow for 5-minute breaks every hour. But Onakoya only took a total of 30 minutes of rest after playing 12 people in a row for 15 hours! That’s intense! He said he’s playing two sets of games at the same time, and he can’t lose any of them to win the record.
He wrote,
“The opponent on the first set is Shawn Martinez, a US National Chess Master, and he will play with Tunde throughout the attempt.
“Opponents in the second set are random players. He can’t lose any game on either set.
“Only Tunde’s match against Shawn Martinez is considered valid for the record. He is not competing in his simultaneous play against random opponents in the second set. NYC, come out and play regardless.”
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