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 shatranj.[1] Shatranj 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]
Several ancestors of chess, such as senet in Ancient Egypt, and Shatranj, were popular in Northern Africa, and it is thought that chess reached Europe through related games played by Moors.
Senterej (Amharic: ሰንጠረዥ sänṭäräž), also known as "Ethiopian chess", is a chess variant, that was the form of chess traditionally played in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It was the last popular survival of shatranj. According to Richard Pankhurst, the game became extinct sometime after the Italian 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 in Abyssinia for thousands of years, its popularity waned in the 20th and 21st centuries.
From 2014 to 2021, the continent produced six grandmasters; Algeria, Egypt, and South Africa were among the countries to be represented by a grandmaster.[7]
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.[7][9] 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.[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 a board game from ancient Egypt that consists of ten or more pawns on a 30-square playing board.[10] The earliest representation of senet is dated to c. 2620 BCE from the Mastaba 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 the Roman period,[11] and its original rules are the subject of conjecture.
1 2 Sebbane, Michael (2001). "Board Games from Canaan in the Early and Intermediate Bronze Ages and the Origin of the Egyptian Senet Game". Tel Aviv. 28 (2): 213–230. doi:10.1179/tav.2001.2001.2.213. S2CID162219908.
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