The much-anticipated clash between Nigerian chess prodigy Deborah Quickpen and Tunde Onakoya, tagged “Battle of The Ages,” holds Tuesday (today), PRIMANEWS Sports Extra reports.
The prospectively enthralling encounter will see 12-year-old Quickpen, Africa’s national champion and multiple National Sports Festival and Youth Games gold medalist, take on Onakoya in a three-hour chess marathon.
Her opponent Onakoya recently entered the Guinness Book of World Records by playing chess for 60 hours in Times Square.
“On June 11, 2024, I will be playing a three-hour chess match against Nigeria’s number one chess prodigy, 12-year-old women’s candidate master Deborah Quickpen. She will be representing Nigeria at the FIDE chess World Cup in Georgia next month. “I have faced many tough opponents, but this will undoubtedly be my hardest match yet. I can categorically say that she is the future of chess in Nigeria,” Onakoya, who is most known for promoting chess in Nigeria’s slums, said.
Quickpen’s story is quite inspiring. Coming from a humble background in Bayelsa, her parents struggled to pay her tuition fees, and she almost dropped out due to financial difficulties.
She started playing chess at three, after being discovered by Nigeria’s current national champion, Edward Evbuomwan, who has coached her ever since.
In 2018, she represented Bayelsa State at the National Sports Festival, becoming the youngest athlete to ever participate in the festival’s history.
She won three gold medals at the National Youth Games, making history as the youngest person to win 18 out of 18 games.
Deborah won the U-10 African Youth Chess Championship in Accra, Ghana, becoming the youngest Nigerian female player to be conferred with the Woman Candidate Master title.
At 10, she was appointed Youth Ambassador for Sports by Bayelsa State Governor Senator Douye Diri.
In 2023, at 11, she became Nigeria’s female national champion, a record that might take decades to break.
Currently in JSS3, Quickpen, who maintains a stellar academic performance, earning double promotions in primary school, is the highest-ranked U-12 female chess player in Africa and the third in the world.
Quickpen, who could become West Africa’s first chess grandmaster given the financial support and visibility, will represent Nigeria at the FIDE World Cup in Georgia next month.
