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April 19 (UPI) — A Nigerian chess master is more than 50 hours into his attempt to play chess for 60 consecutive hours and break a Guinness World Record in the process.
Tunde Onakoya started playing chess at a table in New York’s Times Square on Wednesday, and he crossed the 50-hour mark in the early afternoon Friday.
The current Guinness World Record for longest continuous chess marathon is 56 hours and 9 minutes, but Onakoya is aiming to play for a full 60 hours.
Onakoya is the co-founder of nonprofit groups Chess in Slums Africa and The Gift of Chess.
“We have a vision to give the gift of chess to a million children across Africa,” Onakoya told Fox 5 New York.
“Just setting up a chess center is a very practical way to involve them, and it’s given them a beginning of an education, where they can learn to become thinkers,” Onakoya said. “And that is the best way we can empower anyone — by showing them their own potential.”
The record attempt is being streamed live on Twitch.
