South Africa’s Jesse February is the African women’s chess champion, winning gold at the 2024 African Individual Chess Championship. This is her second title, having first won in 2021.

The 27-year-old from Gqeberha is South Africa’s top-ranking female player and has held the title Woman International Master (WIM) since 2016.

Egyptian Shahenda Wafa, who came third at the African champs, is one of five African Women Grandmasters (WGM), the game’s highest title for female players. Her sister Wafa Shrook earned her title in 2013, while South African Melissa Greeff was just 15 when she received the WGM title in 2009.

South Africa’s only chess grandmaster is Kenny Solomon, who is one of three players from Sub-Saharan Africa to attain the title. The others are Zambian Amon Simutowe and Felix Izeta Txabarri from Senegal.

When Fide, the world chess federation, created the inaugural list of grandmasters in 1950, there were 27 – all of them men. Today, there are just under 1,800 active players. Of those, 42 are women.

To become a grandmaster is technically challenging. A player must at least once achieve an Elo rating, the system used to rank players, of more than 2,500. Less than 1% of players ever do that, according to a recent article in the New York Times. A player must also achieve a set of norms, that is perform at a required rating for multiple games.

Russia has the most grandmasters (179), followed by the US (104), Germany (99), Ukraine (82) and India (81).

Africa’s grandmasters

Africa has 16 grandmasters, most of whom live in North Africa. The first African to achieve this was Tunisian Bouazia Slim in 1993. A title granted for life, he is one of three Tunsian grandmasters.

Amin Bassem, the current African chess champ, is one of six Egyptian grandmasters. Ranked 61st in the world, he is Africa’s highest-rated player and the continent’s only player to have crossed the 2,700 mark.

Algeria has three grandmasters and Hicham Hamdouchi is Moroccan.

The title of Women Grandmaster was introduced by Fide in 1976 and only women can carry this title. There are currently 36 WGMs.

Women and players from African countries face significant barriers including a so-called ‘skewed start’ which sees far more boys learning to play than girls, as well as limited opportunities for high-level competition and insufficient support and sponsorship.

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