Pa Onakoya, the father of Nigerian chess master, Tunde Onakoya, has revealed that he was initially against his son playing chess.
Recall on April 17, Tunde Onakoya commenced his attempt to break the Guinness World Record (GWR) for the longest chess marathon.
He achieved the feat on April 20 at Times Square in New York City after playing for over 58 hours and winning every match.
He broke the record of Norwegian players, Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad, who played for 56-hour, 9-minute in 2018.
Reacting to Tunde’s success on Wednesday in an interview with City Edge TV, his father described him as a resilient person.
He admitted that when Tunde was a child, he used to disrupt his chess games to make him focus on his education.
He said, “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 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.”
