Nigerian chess champion Tunde Onakoya raised more than $120,000 livestreaming himself breaking the Guinness World Record for longest chess marathon.
Onakoya, who is 29 years old and founded the education charity Chess in Slums Africa in 2018, arrived in New York City’s Times Square April 17 with the intention of beating Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad‘s previous record of 56 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds.
His endeavor was supported by U.S. chess champion Shawn Martinez, who played him for the entire 60 hours (and thus has also broken the record). Both competitors were allowed to take five-minute breaks after each hour of gameplay, but otherwise had to keep gaming continuously for their time to be counted toward the record.
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The pair ended up pushing for four further hours after breaking the record, finally ending at 60 hours. “We’re pushing to 60 hours, guys,” Onakoya tweeted after he and Martinez had broken the record. “We’re not stopping yet. Let’s keep going. We have a fundraising goal to meet for the education of African children around the world. This is our why—the reason we are doing this.”
During the marathon, Onakoya’s Tiltify fundraiser brought in $126,074.46 for The Gift of Chess, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in New York City in 2021. The Gift of Chess got its start distributing chess sets to kids in NYC public schools; now it’s international, and working with Onakoya to reach its goal of distributing 1 million chess sets globally by 2030.
So far, it’s given out around 116,000 sets to kids in over two dozen countries and regions including Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ghana, and Somalia.
Guinness has not yet commented on Onakoya and Martinez’s marathon, but, as CNN points out, it can sometimes take weeks for the org to officially recognize a new record.
Onakoya’s fundraiser is still accepting donations for The Gift of Chess. As for what he’s up to now that he’s a world record holder, he capped off the marathon by tweeting, “I’ll always remember this city fondly for many reasons, but it’s time to go home now.”
You can see more about his charity, Chess in Slums Africa, here.
