The Top African Chess Players
I couldn’t find a listing of the top chess players in Africa so I decided to make one myself. Below you will find said listing as well as a brief analysis of the data.
The Top 100 Chess Players in Africa
Based on the most recent FIDE rankings data are as follows:
1. Amin, Bassem FIDE - 2703 (Egypt)
2. Adly, Ahmed FIDE - 2625 (Egypt)
3. Hamdouchi, Hicham FIDE - 2552 (Morocco)
4. Shoker, Samy FIDE - 2504 (Egypt)
5. Bellahcene, Bilel FIDE - 2502 (Algeria)
6. Arab, Adlane FIDE - 2487 (Algeria)
7. Fawzy, Adham FIDE - 2485 (Egypt)
8. Ortega Amarelle, Mariano FIDE - 2463 (Cape Verde)
9. Rizouk, Aimen FIDE - 2436 (Algeria)
10. El Gindy, Essam FIDE - 2420 (Egypt)
11. Cawdery, Daniel FIDE - 2419 (South Africa)
12. Steel, Henry Robert FIDE - 2418 (South Africa)
13. Ezat, Mohamed FIDE - 2417 (Egypt)
14. Abdelnabbi, Imed FIDE - 2411 (Egypt)
15. Ssegwanyi, Arthur FIDE - 2409 (Uganda)
16. Wageih, Kareim FIDE - 2405 (Egypt)
17. Oussedik, Mahfoud FIDE - 2404 (Algeria)
18. Ali, Sebbar FIDE - 2399 (Morocco)
19. Zaibi, Amir FIDE - 2398 (Tunisia)
20. Hesham, Abdelrahman FIDE - 2397 (Egypt)
21. Belouadah, Saad FIDE - 2389 (Algeria)
22. Abdel Razik, Khaled FIDE - 2382 (Egypt)
23. Mandizha, Farai FIDE - 2377 (Zimbabwe)
24. Belkhodja, Slim FIDE - 2366 (Tunisia)
25. Kawuma, Patrick FIDE - 2362 (Uganda)
26. Ameir, Moheb FIDE - 2358 (Egypt)
27. Doghri, Nabil FIDE - 2356 (Tunisia)
28. Makoto, Rodwell FIDE - 2352 (Zimbabwe)
29. Solomon, Kenny FIDE - 2349 (South Africa)
30. Kandil, Adham FIDE - 2342 (Egypt)
31. Ibrahim, Hatim FIDE - 2333 (Egypt)
32. Anwuli, Daniel FIDE - 2330 (Nigeria)
33. Fadi, Marko FIDE - 2324 (Egypt)
34. Kobese, Watu FIDE - 2324 (South Africa)
35. Choukri, Adel FIDE - 2318 (Morocco)
36. Onkoud, Abdelaziz FIDE - 2317 (Morocco)
37. Barrish, Daniel FIDE - 2313 (South Africa)
38. Silva, David FIDE - 2308 (Angola)
39. Elarabi, Abobker Mohamed FIDE - 2307 (Libya)
40. Hassan, Sayed Barakat FIDE - 2303 (Egypt)
41. Ajibola, Olanrewaju FIDE - 2302 (Nigeria)
42. Fathy, Elameir FIDE - 2300 (Egypt)
43. Boudriga, Mohamed Ali FIDE - 2294 (Tunisia)
44. Aderito, Pedro FIDE - 2292 (Angola)
45. Zenhom, Talaat FIDE - 2292 (Egypt)
46. Wanyama, Harold FIDE - 2291 (Uganda)
47. Miguel, Sergio FIDE - 2286 (Angola)
48. Anibar, Ahmed FIDE - 2278 (Morocco)
49. Aithmidou, Mohamed-Mehdi FIDE - 2272 (Morocco)
50. Nassr, Ali FIDE - 2269 (Algeria)
51. Sayed Hassan, Mohamed FIDE - 2265 (Egypt)
52. Van Zyl-Rudd, Jack FIDE - 2264 (South Africa)
53. Naby, Saiid A. FIDE - 2262 (Egypt)
54. Bouaziz, Slim FIDE - 2261 (Tunisia)
55. Emojong, Elijah FIDE - 2261 (Uganda)
56. Sadek, Sameh FIDE - 2258 (Egypt)
57. Ophoff, Ja FIDE - 2257 (South Africa)
58. Oragwu, Chukwunonso FIDE - 2255 (Nigeria)
59. Ashraf, Mohamed FIDE - 2255 (Egypt)
60. Abdulraheem Abdulrahman Akintoye FIDE - 2254 (Nigeria)
61. Douissa, Oussama FIDE - 2253 (Tunisia)
62. Balogun, Oluwafemi FIDE - 2247 (Nigeria)
63. Campos, Eugenio FIDE - 2247 (Angola)
64. John, Henry FIDE - 2245 (South Sudan)
65. Osunfuyi , Abimbola FIDE - 2244 (Nigeria)
66. Domingos, Catarino FIDE - 2242 (Angola)
67. Mhango, Banele FIDE - 2241 (South Africa)
68. Bouaziz, Mehdi FIDE - 2239 (Tunisia)
69. Aikhoje, Odion FIDE - 2239 (Nigeria)
70. Akinseye, Abiola FIDE - 2236 (Nigeria)
71. Olape, Bunmi FIDE - 2235 (Nigeria)
72. Mabusela, Johannes Manyedi FIDE - 2235 (South Africa)
73. Abdel Moneim, Mohamed Ahmed FIDE - 2234 (Egypt)
74. Ashraf, Shereif FIDE - 2233 (Egypt)
75. Jemai, Akram FIDE - 2229 (Tunisia)
76. Ragheb, Malak FIDE - 2226 (Egypt)
77. Mwale, Joseph FIDE - 2225 (Malawu)
78. Talbi, Chafik FIDE - 2224 (Algeria)
79. Van den Heever, Donovan FIDE - 2224 (South Africa)
80. Beukes, Dante M FIDE - 2222 (Namibia)
81. Elgabry, Mohsen FIDE - 2220 (Egypt)
82. Tagelsir , Abubaker FIDE - 2219 (Sudan)
83. Amdouni, Zoubaier FIDE - 2218 (Tunisia)
84. Yousry, Salah FIDE - 2218 (Egypt)
85. Barbaria, Yacine FIDE - 2217 (Tunisia)
86. Henni, Mohamed FIDE - 2215 (Algeria)
87. Sobh, Amrou FIDE - 2213 (Egypt)
88. Elsayed, Mohamed Samir FIDE - 2212 (Egypt)
89. Okas, Walter FIDE - 2209 (Uganda)
90. Klaasen, Calvin John FIDE - 2208 (South Africa)
91. Soares, Erikson Roberto Mauricio FIDE - 2206 (Angola)
92. Adu, Oladapo FIDE - 2204 (Nigeria)
93. Maduagwuna, Emmanuel FIDE - 2203 (Nigeria)
94. Abdelazeez, Mohamed Abdalla FIDE - 2202 (Sudan)
95. Paiva, Donaldo FIDE - 2201 (Mozambique)
96. Gabr, Mohsen FIDE - 2199 (Egypt)
97. Ibrahim, Hosam FIDE - 2199 (Egypt)
98. Raslan, Moustafa FIDE - 2198 (Egypt)
99. Ezra Paul Chambers FIDE - 2198 (Burundi)
100. Zakaria, Esam FIDE - 2197 (Egypt)
Analysis
First I began by grouping the players by country to determine the top chess countries, these are:
Top Chess Countries in Africa
1. Egypt-31
2. South Africa-11
3. Nigeria-11
4. Tunisia-10
5. Algeria-8
6. Morocco-6
7. Angola-6
8. Uganda-5
9. Zimbabwe-2
10. Sudan-2
11. Cape Verde-1
12. Libya-1
13. South Sudan-1
14. Malawi-1
15. Namibia-1
16. Mozambique-1
17. Burundi-1
One interesting thing to note is the prominence of Egyptian players in this listing, over 30% of the top 100 players originate in Egypt.
This observation lead me to question what it is exactly that makes Egypt such a strong chess nation, could it be their relative wealth compared to other African nations, could it be that their population is so high that they are statistically more likely to produce great chess players, or could it be some other unknown factor?
I began by comparing the number of top ranked players with the population of a country. Surely a country with more people is more likely to produce great talent as they have a larger talent pool to begin with. Taking the 2019 population numbers from the World Bank I created the chart below. 
Surprisingly, population size seems to be a moderate/weak indicator of chess success. For instance, despite having a population that is double that of Egypt, Nigeria has but 1/3 the top chess players. Also, despite having 18 times the population of Tunisia, and 4x the population of South Africa, Nigeria is sending roughly the same number of people as them to the upper echelons of chess. Notably missing is Ethiopia who has the second largest population and no players in the top 100.
Well if it isn’t quantity than it must be quality (of life), next I looked at the GDP of each country (also from World Bank 2019) and compared that data.
Similarly, it seems GDP per capita has even less of a correlation to chess greatness then population. This really surprised me as I would assume countries with a higher GDP per capita would produce more great players as they have the luxury of pursuing a leisurely activity like chess, also they would have more resources at their disposal. Here Libya stands out, despite having the highest GDP per capita they have only produce one player in the top 100. What we do see is that countries with a higher GDP are more likely to produce great chess players. Perhaps this is due to concentrations of wealth, these countries with higher GDPs may have that money concentrated at the top, so despite having a large population that money isn’t necessarily enjoyed by everyone (this is mere speculation though).
Since I was yet to get any definitive answers I decided to graph these again but this time excluding Egypt. Below are the “Egypt-Adjusted” charts, this time looking at population, GDP, and GDP per Capita.
Here we see that the results are not too different but it’s clear that GDP, rather than GDP per capita is a much more reliable indicator of chess success when we account for the anomaly that is Egypt. Nevertheless, this isn’t the most detailed analysis but I did find these results interesting and I hope you did too. I am not a statistician or an expert in this field whatsoever so if you have some suggestions I gladly welcome them.
