The father of Nigerian chess master Tunde Onakoya, Pa Onakoya, has said that he wasn’t always in favor of his son’s chess playing.
He said that in order to get Tunde to concentrate on his studies as a youngster, he used to interfere with his chess games.
In a brief interview with City Edge TV, the delighted father revealed this. On Wednesday, he arrived to the Lagos airport with his wife and several others to greet the Guinness World Record-breaker with heroism.
He stated, “To me, Babatunde Onakoya is an angel because whatever he set his mind on you must succeed.
“As a small child, when Tunde was playing chess, I usually packed everything away from him because I wanted him to focus on school. I didn’t know that it was what would make him popular like this.
“My advice for parents is that they shouldn’t to discourage their children from their passions. I wanted Tunde to be a doctor but I didn’t know that chess would make him popular like this. I thank God.”
At Times Square in New York, Tunde Onakoya just beat the record for the longest-ever chess marathon, clocking in at sixty hours.
He beat the record set by Norwegian players Sjur Ferkingstad and Hallvard Haug Flatebø in 2018, who played for 56 hours and nine minutes.
