The game of chess has a history of being played in the continent ofAfrica. Its play inSouth Africa is of particular interest to chess writers and historians.
The board gamesenet preceded chess and was favored byAncient Egyptian royalty.[1] Chess is thought to have first made its way to Africa throughshatranj. As theMuslim conquest of Persia occurred, the Muslims took and modifiedchatrang, adopting it as shatranj.[1] Shatranj is recognized as the immediate predecessor to chess. Whilechess in Europe has received considerable more attention by chess historians, it is thought that the game made its way to Europe from theMoors of North Africa.[1]
In 1998, theAfrican 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 theAfrican Games. To date, Africa has 15grandmasters.[3]
Several ancestors of chess, such assenet inAncient Egypt, and Shatranj, were popular in Northern Africa, and it is thought that chess reached Europe through related games played byMoors.
Senterej (Amharic: ሰንጠረዥ sänṭäräž), also known as "Ethiopian chess", is achess variant, that was the form of chess traditionally played inEthiopia andEritrea. It was the last popular survival ofshatranj. According toRichard Pankhurst, the game became extinct sometime after theItalian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s.[4][5] A distinctive feature of Senterej is the opening phase – players make as many moves as they like without regard for how many moves the opponent has made; this continues until the first capture is made. Memorization of opening lines is therefore not a feature of the game. Though it was played inAbyssinia for thousands of years, its popularity waned in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The ACC (Confédération Africaine des Echecs) was founded following theAgainst Chess Olympiad in 1976 inTripoli, Libya.[6]
This is a list of all the presidents of the confederation:
| President | Country | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Belkadi Ridha |  Tunisia | 1978-1990 |
| Emmanuel Omuku |  Nigeria | 1990-1994 |
| Lakhdar Mazouz |  Algeria | 1994-2002 |
| Nizzar Elhadj |  Libya | 2002-2006 |
| Buthali Dalibani |  Botswana | 2006-2010 |
| Lakhdar Mazouz | Algeria | 2010-2014 |
| Lewis Ncube |  Zambia | 2014 – 2022 |
| Lopang Tshepiso | Botswana | Since 2022 |
As achild,Phiona Mutesi enrolled in a chess club inKatwe,Uganda in 2005.[7] Her success in chess garnered international attention, including a 2016 Disney-produced filmQueen of Katwe.[8]
From 2014 to 2021, the continent produced sixgrandmasters;Algeria,Egypt, andSouth Africa were among the countries to be represented by a grandmaster.[7]
After returning to his home slum inNigeria in 2018, chess masterTunde Onakoya founded Chess in Slums Africa, a volunteer organization aiming to teach and coach chess to children of low-income communities.[7][9] Also in 2018, James Kangaru ofKenya was recognized by theInternational Chess Federation (orFIDE) as one of the best chess coaches and became Africa's youngest FIDE instructor.[7]
Sometimes called "Ethiopian Chess", Senterej has a lot in common with chess, like being played on an 8x8 board, albeit not checkered, with a similar setup.
Senet or senat (Ancient Egyptian:𓊃𓈖𓏏𓏠,romanized: znt,lit. 'passing'; cf.Copticⲥⲓⲛⲉ/sinə/, 'passing, afternoon') is aboard game fromancient Egypt that consists of ten or more pawns on a 30-square playing board.[10] The earliest representation of senet is dated toc. 2620 BCE from theMastaba of Hesy-Re,[11] while similar boards and hieroglyphic signs are found even earlier, including in the Levant in the Early Bronze Age II period.[12][13] Even though the game has a 2,000-year history in Egypt, there appears to be very little variation in terms of key components.[10][14] This can be determined by studying the various senet boards that have been found by archaeologists, as well as depictions of senet being played throughout Egyptian history on places like tomb walls and papyrus scrolls. However, the game fell out of use during theRoman period,[11] and its original rules are the subject of conjecture.
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