By the middle of the morning on Friday, 19 April, the timer had already ticked the 41 hours mark meaning that if resting breaks and other sides were added, the Chess in Slums founder Tunde Onakoya had approximately 72,000 seconds left to complete the Guinness World Records longest chess marathon challenge he started two days prior.

The venue of the marathon to raise $1million to fund the education and potential for growth of disadvantaged African children is right there at the bubbly United States New York Times Square where history has been made many a time.

As of afternoon on Thursday, Mr Onakoya had reached 24 hours. He marked that with an appeal during which he first praised the Nigerian can-do spirit which had meant massive support for the cause.

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To make his challenge worthwhile, he has asked his fellow countrymen and women to start community groups to ensure Nigeria truly takes the lead in the campaign to raise funds for the African kids who need an education which begins through the chess loop.

Since he started the challenge, the Chess in Slums Africa founder had been glued to the board moving chess pieces and taking out oppositions game-by-game. So, as soon as he had room to breathe, he sent out an SOS asking for genuine, organic help from his country’s people which goes like this: Hello, Nigerians. So, this is my five-minute break and I just want to say thank you. I am unable to use my phone for the next two days so I won’t be able to see any of the messages of course, but I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for the support. You know, Nigerians we dey always always turn up.

My energies are 100 percent right now because my people are here supporting me with music and it’s just a very surreal experience. I just want to say on a final note: Please we are doing this to raise funds for a project to be able to give kids without access the opportunity they deserve to learn. So, please donate.

I want a thousand people to launch a thousand fundraisers within their community as well. Tell your friends and family to donate to this trust and let us raise the money that is needed so that all of this won’t be in vain. Thank you so much. I love you guys and I’ll see you on the other side. We are doing this to the very end. We started already; the rest is just a matter of tenacity. Thank you so much. Love you guys, Up Naija for life – Let’s do this!

A message from me to you. 🙏🏾https://t.co/hCAAlGMBJA#ChessMarathonForChange@thegiftofchess @chessinslums pic.twitter.com/dGECpeec9j

— Tunde Onakoya (@Tunde_OD) April 18, 2024

Although he has had treats with others who wrestled with his mind on the board, Tunde Onakoya’s main challenger is the New York City-based Coach Shawn Martinez who like him is quite interested in the game of chess.

Coach Martinez also runs a platform targeting youths for rehabilitation from some of their challenges, so there goes the perfect match out there in the busy Times Square open and doing it for the love of harnessing future talents through the game.

In the next coming hours, the partners will displace the former longest chess marathon challenge holders, Norwegians Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad, who completed 56 hr 09 min 37 sec on 11 November 2018 in Haugesund, Norway.