60 hours of chess in Times Square may have set a record, but is already a win

Published Apr 20, 2024 at 9:20 a.m. ET

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Published Apr 20, 2024 at 9:20 a.m. ET

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As three-card-monte hucksters ply their trade and vendors hawk bus tickets and fake purses to tourists in Times Square, Tunde Onakoya is locked onto two chess boards, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him.

The native Nigerian is trying to play chess for 58-and-a-half consecutive hours which, if verified, would be a new record.

“He's completely calm, almost zen-like,” said Russell Makofsky, president of the Gift of Chess which is promoting the event as a fundraiser. “His disposition has stayed consistent from the start.”

In the 1980s, chess hustlers shared the streets with sex workers and dealers before being shooed away by the Time Square Alliance. Those days are long gone, and Onakoya isn’t trying to hustle anyone. He’s trying to beat the Guiness world record for the longest number of consecutive chess games, a spectacle he hopes will raise money for chess.

“We're trying to get a million chess sets out all over the world as a tool for education,” he said. “What better platform than to come here and go to the people in Times Square.”

Onakoya, 29, is from Ikorodu, a northeastern section of Nigeria’s megacity Lagos. He’s bundled against a cold mist in a jacket, scarf and a beret-type hat he calls a “chess fila.” After he routs the opponent on his right in thirteen moves, he turns back to his chief opponent, chess master and coach Shawn Martinez.

Suddenly, Onakoya stands and calls for Makofsky who nods. They both jump over the velvet rope and sprint toward a restaurant for the rest room. Playing chess for 58 consecutive hours presents some logistical challenges, beyond the lack of sleep — namely, how to eat and go to the bathroom.

“Yeah, so every hour we get a five minute break,” Martinez said, stretching his legs. “[Onakoya] had to rush to the bathroom so he's going to use the five minutes.”

When the rain gets heavy they’ll move under the scaffolding. People have been delivering food: bananas, green apples, big trays of jollof rice. The late-night cold, though, worries Onakoya.

“Two a.m. , when it gets really cold and maybe when there are not as many people here anymore,” he said in one of his few brief interviews while playing. “But, yeah, I'm doing it for the dreams of thousands and millions of children across Africa without access to education. So, that should keep me up enough.”

The Gift of Chess is a registered nonprofit. According to its latest tax filing, nearly all of the $90,000 it raised went to purchase chess sets and supplies. According to Guinness World Records, the previous chess marathon record was just over 56 hours. However, apocryphal stories of longer chess marathons float through the chess community.

“I've seen it where people play for a whole week, nonstop living on coffee and espresso, that I can vouch for,” Imad Khachan, owner of the Chess Forum near Washington Square Park, said in a phone interview. “My place used to be 24 hours and people really would stay a whole week until they basically started to stink.”

What caught his attention about Onakoya was a social media post where claimed he would play “58 hours without losing a game.”

“Bringing such a challenge to New York is a dangerous thing,” Khachan said. “In New York, you throw a dime in the air it falls on the head of a chess master. This is the wrong city to come and throw your weight around unless you really are someone.”

Makofsky has since corrected this. Onakoya wasn’t planning to win every game. And, what was supposed to be just 58 hours turned into 60 hours. By the time he finished playing, he raised nearly $96,000.

Whether he set a new record is now up to the Guiness bureaucratic process, and it’s unclear when the world will know for sure. But Onakoya says spreading awareness and access around the game is a victory in itself — it helps players understand their emotions.

“When I start to play chess obsessively, I know something is wrong somewhere,” he said after winning a blitz round against Martinez. “I've always believed the way one plays chess is always an extension of their personality.”

Back under the saturating glow of Times Square’s billboards, Emmanuel Abiodun Oke walks around Onakoya and the chess boards, carrying a clipboard screening potential opponents, many of whom are Nigerian and call Onakoya an inspiration.

Oke traveled with Onakoya and helped him start Chess in the Slums, a nonprofit that Gift of Chess lists as a partner in one of its tax filings. He delivers a practiced pitch saying Chess in the Slums has given children a new identity in order to break out of poverty.

“We sew different clothes for them, and then give them a chess fila, which is the cap you can see Tunde Onakoya always wearing,” he said.

When pressed about his own change in identity after learning chess in 2021, Oke appears to break from his script.

“Chess has been perceived to carry this sense of intellectualism. When you say you are a chess player, the way people think about you goes positively,” Oke said. “That is why we have this saying in our organization, that it is possible to do great things from a small place.”

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Charles is a Day-of reporter focused on breaking news and enterprise. He’s very friendly and can be reached at [email protected], or more securely on whatsapp/signal 631-295-6715

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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