Celebrated chess master, Tunde Onakoya, has announced that 10 children from his foundation, “Chess in Slum” will be travelling to the US for a chess community conference next year.
The new Guinness world record holder announced this on his ‘X’ handle, “I am thrilled to announce that 10 children from the Chess in slums academy including prodigy Deborah Quickpen, will be travelling to America for the @ChessCommunity conference next year. This will help us continue fostering cross-cultural exchange opportunities between Nigerians and Americans.
“This conference gave me the opportunity to travel to America for the first time in my life. Now the kids will enjoy the same experience and more importantly, realise that they too can make an impact on a global stage.”
The caption was followed by a video containing his short story of how he made it to America without even a visa at that time, because of the recognition of his chess skills.
Before his international recognition, Onakoya had won many local and international tournaments and was ranked number 13 in Nigeria at one point.
He set a world record after playing chess for 58 hours, at New York’s iconic Times Square, his motive was to raise $1m (£805,000) for charity to support chess education for millions of children across Nigeria. He broke the record of Norwegian players, Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad, who played for 56-hour, and 9-minute in 2018.
His hard work was rewarded when Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, appointed him the state sports ambassador.
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In the governor’s words he said, “Today, we will be officially appointing you as our state sports ambassador. Coincidentally, Ogun State will be hosting the National Sports Festival in the next nine months or thereabouts and we are boasting that we are set to host the best National Sports Festival that has ever been held in the history of this country coincidentally, it is one of the games that will feature in that event.
“I have decided that because of you and in your honour, we will begin an Ogun State Chess Competition across the length and breadth of the state. Since you are now officially our sports ambassador and our chess ambassador, we will leave it to you to design that competition from the local government to the state level.”
Onakoya is also a board member of the US non-profit The Gift of Chess, which works to transform lives through chess and is targeting to distribute one million chess sets to underserved communities by 2030.
Chess in Slums Africa is a Non-Governmental Organization Onakoya founded to create opportunities and education for marginalised children through chess.
