Pa Onakoya, the father of Nigerian chess master, Tunde Onakoya, has revealed that he wasn't initially in support of his son playing chess. He admitted that when Tunde was a child, he used to disrupt his chess games to make him focus on his education. The proud father disclosed this in a sideline interview with City Edge TV when he joined his wife and many others at Lagos airport on Wednesday, to give the Guinness World Record-breaker a heroic welcome.
'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 made 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.