Nigerian chess advocate and Guinness World Record holder Tunde Onakoya has unveiled the Lagos International Chess Festival, a new event scheduled for October 2027 that will combine competitive chess with art, fashion and cultural experiences.
Onakoya announced the festival on Saturday, October 10, at the Mikano Motors showroom in Lagos, where he celebrated his birthday and shared his vision of making the city a meeting point for chess players and enthusiasts from Africa and beyond.
The festival aims to take chess beyond traditional tournaments by creating an experience that reflects Lagos’s identity and brings the game to a wider audience.
“Chess has given me a way to find my place in the world, and I want to share that. It is a beautiful game, and it has the power to bring people together,” Onakoya said.
The proposed programme includes a chess and art exhibition, a large-scale tournament for children, matches between grandmasters and a celebrity chess tournament. Organisers also plan to introduce a chess and fashion event and a party celebrating Lagos.
One of the proposed activities is chess on a boat, an idea inspired by the city’s waterways and its relationship with the surrounding lagoon.
Onakoya hopes the programme will attract people who might not ordinarily encounter chess through formal competition, while creating opportunities for African players to connect with the international chess community.
The festival’s visual identity also draws inspiration from Lagos. Its logo combines elements of the Eyo masquerade, a recognisable symbol of the city, with the shape of a rook, one of the principal pieces in chess. The colours reflect Lagos’s vibrancy.
“This is the starting point, the visual reality of the first edition. I’m excited, a bit nervous and very curious, but I know that, like everything else we’ve done, we have to have faith in our ideas,” he said.
Representatives of Mikano, Landmark Africa Group, Lufthansa, Hennessy, The Plug Global Agency and Chess in Slums Africa attended the announcement alongside other guests. An intimate dinner at Gräs Lagos followed the event.
With the inaugural edition scheduled for October 2027, the next phase will involve developing the proposed activities into a festival capable of attracting players and audiences from across Africa and internationally.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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