Renowned chess player, Tunde Onakoya, who commenced his mission to surpass the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon for 58 hours, has played the game for over 16 hours, winning all opponents.

A post on his X handle early Thursday read, “Tunde Onakoya beats a very worthy opponent and one of New York’s finest, National Chess Master Shawn Martinez!”

Onakoya’s manager, known as Taiwo with the X handle “OgaBoxx,” has also provided insights into the nature of the challenge.

Taiwo stated that after 15 hours of continuous play with 12 opponents, Onakoya took an accumulated break of 30 minutes, as the rules stipulate a five-minute break for every hour of play.

He added that Onakoya is playing two sets of games simultaneously and must not lose either.

He wrote, “The opponent on the first set is Shawn Martinez, a US National Chess Master, and he will play with Tunde throughout the attempt.

“Opponents in the second set are random players. He can’t lose any game on either set.

“Only Tunde’s match against Shawn Martinez is considered valid for the record. He is not competing in his simultaneous play against random opponents in the second set. NYC, come out and play regardless.”

The event, which is underway at New York City’s iconic Times Square, started on Wednesday, April 17, and is scheduled to end on April 19.