Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Chess master Tunde Onakoya breaks world record for longest chess marathon

The new feat has surpassed the earlier 61-hour, 3-minute, and 34-second record set by Norwegian duo Askild Bryn and Odin Blikra Vea.

• April 20, 2025
Nigerian chess master, Tunde Onakoya
Nigerian chess master, Tunde Onakoya[Credit: Instagram]

Nigerian chess master Tunde Onakoya has re-established himself, alongside his American chess partner, Shawn Martinez, as players of the longest chess marathon in the world.

Onakoya and Martinez, on Sunday, at Times Square, New York, made a feat of the 64-hour round-the-clock chess game. 

The marathon began on Thursday, April 17, with a target to raise $1,000,000 through his initiative, Chess in Slums Africa, which will be used to build the largest tuition-free school for vulnerable children in Nigeria.

The new feat has surpassed the earlier 61-hour, 3-minute, and 34-second record set by Norwegian duo Askild Bryn and Odin Blikra Vea.

Onakoya, in a post via his X handle, @Tunde_OD, ascribed the victory to all dreamers who aspire to change the world.

“If you had 70 hours to change the world, what would you do? Sometimes the world won’t hand you 70 hours on a golden platter. Sometimes, you have to carve it out of your own breath, your own becoming. Not for applause. Not for records. But for the quiet dreamers who need to see someone leap — so they know it’s possible to fly,” Onakoya tweeted.

“This is a dream I’ve carried for years. Because no child should ever have their childhood sacrificed for survival. No dream should be buried beneath the weight of poverty,” he added.

As of the time of this report, the Guinness World Records, a global authority on record-breaking achievements, has yet to recognise the feat.

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