Onakoya admits grappling with food poisoning during chess marathon

New Guinness World Record holder for the longest unbeaten chess marathon, Tunde Onakoya, has confirmed that he suffered food poisoning during his record-breaking chess marathon campaign.

Onakoya’s 58-hour quest to break the Guinness World record for the longest unbeaten chess marathon began Wednesday, April 17 at 10am in Times Square, New York and ended at about 12:40am (04:40GMT) on Saturday.

The Nigerian chess master embarked on the marathon hoping to raise $1m for children’s education across Africa through the record attempt.

He had set out to play the royal game for 58 hours but continued until he reached 60 hours at about 12:40am (04:40GMT) on Saturday, surpassing the previous chess marathon record of 56 hours, nine minutes and 37 seconds achieved in 2018 by Norwegians Hallvard Haug Flatebo and Sjur Ferkingstad.

During the record-breaking marathon game, Onakoya played against Shawn Martinez, an American chess champion, in line with Guinness World Records guidelines that any attempt to break the record be made by two players who would play continuously for the entire duration.

Despite facing health challenges during the marathon, including intense vomiting and stomach pain, Onakoya remained steadfast. When given the choice to quit, he stated, “I will play on for the dreams of millions of children.” His determination has garnered widespread support, with online well-wishers and onlookers at the scene cheering him on.

For every hour of game played, Onakoya and his opponent got only five-minute break.

In his post on his X handle, the 29-year-old wrote that he suffered food poisoning that prevented him from eating.

“Catching up on social media now and I’ve constantly fought back tears,” he tweeted.

“Love you guys very much. I’ll do a proper post when I get the right words to express all of the emotions I feel right now.

“Let me delve into this jollof rice for now. It’s my first meal in almost four days. I had food poisoning during the marathon so I couldn’t eat anything at all, just water.”

Onakoya is well known in Nigeria, where he launched the Chess in Slums project in 2018 in Ikorodu, on the outskirts of Lagos.

The organisation offers often-marginalised young people, many of whom are not in school and work to help their families, a space to learn to play chess.