greatest african american chess player

Why, Carlssen excels in playing black!

People are forgetting Rogelio Ortega of Cuba. He was the strongest black chess player before Maurice Ahsley. In 1966 he won the Cuban Chess Championship and five times was a member of the Cuban team to the chess Olympics. His last Elo known was 2472. 

I'm surprised that chessgames.com has only one game between Ashley and Tate, a draw. 

I'll have to ask Maurice Ashley if there are any other games between the two.

I lost to Tate as Black in a national championship. I had the better position for a while, then he unleashed some nasty tactics and won nicely. 

Do you still have the game?  I'd like to see "nasty tactics", lol.

Ortega, in the open collar, at the 1967 Akiba Rubenstein Memorial in Polanica-Zdrój:

SP, I have it on paper somewhere in a box. It'd take some digging to find it. I remember parts of it, but I'm no longer confident in my memory to create the whole game without errors.

Maurice Ashley is definitely top black GM.

Btw, race does exist.  It refers essentially to the color of your skin and one or two other minor and unimportant details.  Race exists, it's just unimportant.  

Don't misunderstand me.  I don't care anything about what anyone's race is.  And my flag has been mistaken for Neo-Nazi; it's not, it's a Byzantine flag.  Don't misread this as racist.  

Pretty sure that title goes to Nelson Mandela, don't @ me

Amin Bassem reached 2700 this month, and he is African, but an Arab- not Black.

David Sims, #51:  "As a rule of thumb, what Elo 2800 is to white men is what Elo 2600 is to white women, is what Elo 2400 is to black men. There are both racial and gender differences in the distributions of the kind of intelligence that makes a good chess player."

NOT flagged.  NOT reported.  By me anyways.  I subscribe to responsible freedom of speech.  

People have the right to express something that's possibly offensive to others without others claiming victimhood status and melting like crying snowflakes.  

For example, I will make the following statement of personal observation that could make others go into a frothing rage of offended anger.  I do not apologize in advance.  

Ready?  Here it is:  In General, men make longer, louder, and stinkier farts than women.  

I have no statistical evidence or reputable scientific articles to buttress this claim.  I simply report my personal findings.  And that there is great INEQUALITY in the stench of.farts (or flatulence if you will) between men and women.  

Not sorry if you are offended by my observation of this inequality between men and women. 

That's a fantastic accomplishment!

Was it a smooth one?

The OP (original poster) asked for the best African American player, that is, black person from the United States. According to the US Census, "African American" refers to people with ancestry from Sub-Saharan Africa, not North Africa.

"Sub-Saharan African entries are classified as Black or African American with the exception
of Sudanese and Cape Verdean because of their complex, historical heritage. North
African entries are classified as White, as OMB defines White as a person having origins
in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa"

https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-06.pdf

"African" is not a race. "African" is not a synonym with "black", since the general population from North Africa is mostly Caucasian (Arabs and Berbers). The player you mention is the Egyptian Bessem Amin, who is ranked #35 in the world with an impressive ELO of 2709. Bessem Amin is obviously Caucasian (Arab), not a black person. So your comment does not reply the original OP's question, which was refering to black people.

I never did ask him.

in other news. GM Ashley will be on the Daily Show tonight!

Emory Tate was a great chess competitor in the Washington DC area for many years, a by-product of his time in the Armed Forces (and probably the Pentagon).  Later he moved to the West Coast, and terrorized many out there with his sharp tactical play.  He played like Tal; always exciting, always a blizzard of complications in the middle game.

For those of you who don't know, Emory Tate died several years ago. I heard he died of a heart attack while playing a tournament game. I myself,  liked the way he played. He was really different from most GMs.

Yes, he was really different from most GMs. He never became one.

From what I know.  American Blacks, including myself have been called a lot of different names.

Jesse Jackson in his prime, settled on Africa American.  This settle the confusion among Blacks and Whites,  at the time.

It's more accurate and not a put down.

joseph henry blackburne