The game of chess has a history of being played in the continent of Africa. Its play in South Africa is of particular interest to chess writers and historians.
The board game senet preceded chess and was favored by Ancient Egyptian royalty.[1] Chess is thought to have first made its way to Africa through shatranj. As the Muslim conquest of Persia occurred, the Muslims took and modified chatrang, adopting it as shatraj.[1] Shantraj is recognized as the immediate predecessor to chess. While chess in Europe has received considerable more attention by chess historians, it is thought that the game made its way to Europe from the Moors of North Africa.[1]
Senterej is another component of the history of chess in Africa as it is considered the "Ethiopian version of chess".[1] Having been played for over a thousand years, its popularity waned in the 20th and 21st centuries.[1]
In 1998, the African Chess Championship began being held.[1] The most recent edition held in 2022 saw Egyptian players dominate.[2] Since 2003, chess has also been played at the African Games.
Chess being played in Uganda
As a child, Phiona Mutesi enrolled in a chess club in Katwe, Uganda in 2005.[3] Her success in chess garnered international attention, including a 2016 Disney-produced film Queen of Katwe.[4]
From 2014 to 2021, the continent produced six grandmasters; Algeria, Egypt, and South Africa were among the countries to be represented by a grandmaster.[3]
After returning to his home slum in Nigeria in 2018, chess master Tunde Onakoya founded Chess in Slums Africa, a volunteer organization aiming to teach and coach chess to children of low-income communities.[3][5] Also in 2018, James Kangaru of Kenya was recognized by the International Chess Federation (or FIDE) as one of the best chess coaches and became Africa's youngest FIDE instructor.[3]
^ abcdef"The History of Chess in Africa". Chess Institute of Canada. February 6, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
^"2022 African Chess Championship: Bassem Amin and Shahenda Wafa claim titles". FIDE. 28 September 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
^ abcdSalaudeen, Aisha; Kasera, Yvonne (3 November 2021). "Chess coaches in Africa are building the next generation of grandmasters". CNN. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
^Levs, Jon (10 December 2012). "From slum life to Disney film: Ugandan teen chess star 'the ultimate underdog'". CNN. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
^Watta, Evelyn (10 October 2021). "How chess became an escape for children living in a Nigerian slum". olympics.com. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
The game of chess has a history of being played in the continent of Africa. Its play in South Africa is of particular interest to chess writers and historians...
Chessin Slums Africa is an non-profit organization dedicated to transforming the lives of children in impoverished communities through the strategic game...
Chess South Africa (CHESS SA, previously CHESSA) is the national governing body for the sport of chessin South Africa. Chess South Africa is affiliated...
for Chessin South Africa. South Africa first participated in the 1958 Olympiad in Munich. The team stopped participating in international chessin 1974...
Nigerian chess player and coach, who holds the Guinness World Records for the longest marathon chess game. and founder of Chessin Slums Africa. He has...
The South AfricanChess Championship was first organised in 1892 by the Cape Town Chess Club. It is now organised by Chess South Africa (CHESSA), the...
19 September 1999) is a South Africanchess player who holds the title of Woman International Master, which she earned in 2013 at the age of 13, becoming...
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion inchess. The current world champion is Ding Liren, who defeated his opponent Ian...
The Chess World Cup 2023 was a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 30 July to 24 August 2023. It was...
Makonde chess sets are made by the Makonde people of southwest Tanzania and Mozambique, carved in the Makonde's distinctive style. Chess sets were originally...
The first AfricanChess Championship was played in 1998. Ibrahim Hasan Labib and Mohamed Tissir both shared first place with 7/10, but the former took...
Chess is a board game for two players, each controlling a set of chess pieces. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish...
Chess has been contested at the African Games since the 2003 Games in Abuja, except for the 2015 Games in Brazzaville. The chess events have included individual...
rounds of blitz chess and boxing until one wins by checkmate or knockout. It is also possible to win by time penalty as in normal chess, and by boxing...
Chess is played all over the world. The international governing body of chess is FIDE, established in 1924. Most national chess federations are now members...
The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject...
This glossary of chess explains commonly used terms inchess, in alphabetical order. Some of these terms have their own pages, like fork and pin. For...
is a South Africanchess Grandmaster. He is the first and currently the only Grandmaster South Africa has ever produced. He took up chess at the age of...
500 chess sets to meet Tunde Onakoya, The Founder of Chessin the Slums Africa. Chess sets were distributed across Lagos, most notably to children in Makoko...
The African Junior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament open to players inAfrica who are under 20 years of age. The tournament was first...
American chess international master. He was the father of the Internet personalities Andrew and Tristan Tate. Emory Andrew Tate Jr. was born in Chicago...
A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either white or black, and it can be one...
The 44th Chess Olympiad was an international team chess event organised by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Chennai, India, from 28 July to...
Chess at the 2019 African Games was held from 24 to 28 August 2019 in Casablanca, Morocco. Algeria Angola Botswana Cape Verde Central African Republic...
World Chess Champion Ding Liren and Women's World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun. The winner of the Candidates Tournament will play Ding in the World Chess Championship...
Global Information
