Showcase - Games of African Players

As I write this it is February 2021, Black History Month here in the US. This is therefore as good a time as any to start a thread where people can post their favorite games by African players.

I take inspiration from various bloggers who have introduced me and many others to a number of interesting German, Hungarian, Russian and other Eastern European players from the past that are perhaps not extremely well known today but should be. I have a special section in my games binder specifically for the players I have discovered through bloggers.

I hope people will post here their favorite games by African players of the present but especially from the past. By African I mean not only players from the African continent, but also African-Americans, Afro-Brazilians, Afro-Carribean players, Afro-Europeans, etc. Chess is a great equalizer, really. You don't have to be from an industrialized Western country to excel at "the other beautiful game." I hope this thread will serve to widen our appreciation of chess players from the place some of us fondly call "the Motherland."

In my search for interesting African players one of the first names I encountered was that of Amon Simutowe of Zambia. According to Wikipedia he is the first GM from sub-Saharan Africa. He appears to no longer be active in competitive chess, having instead devoted himself to the study of economics and international finance since around 2010.

Another interesting game, this time from Jamaican-American Maurice Ashley, the first black GM. I have played this game through many times in an effort to understand his rationale for sacrificing his Queen. One usually doesn't sacrifice his or her Queen without a good reason--though I understand that the immortal Tal often sacrificed a piece simply to unnerve an opponent. 

The only reason I can see for this sacrifice is that Ashley wanted to complete the strangulation of Black's position with his Knights. But of course, the thought processes of elite chess players are on a level far above a mere enthusiastic amateur such as myself, so I will simply say that I enjoy this game.

As far as I know, Ashley is not involved with competitive chess these days, but remains a tireless promoter of our beautiful game. 

A nice game by GM Bassem Amin of Egypt, the highest-rated African player. Especially exciting is the carnage that erupts in the middle of the board around midgame!