The Eritrean Chess Federation is the governing body of chess in Eritrea which was first registered in the early parts of 2001. After many sponsorship and friendly collaboration with embassies from Europe, the national program started to get the boost it needed. With Eritrea focused on bigger issues the sport was growing slowly until the summer of 2015 when it was once again on the rise when the President of African Chess Confederation Mr Lewis Ncube paid a visit to the country accompanied by GM (Grand Master) Ahmed Adly of Egypt.

During the important visit GM Ahmed Adly played against 21 players simultaneously at the Nyala Hotel in the Asmara. It was during this time that many followers were able to focus on the tactical mind sport as fans and those who wanted to participate. There was a huge attendance from the delegation of the Eritrean Chess Federation in addition to many chess fans. The GM Ahmed Adly who has won several championships took on 21 players at the same time and he was able to go away with 20 wins and 1 loss. His only loss coming from the Eritrean national Champion Kibrom Weldegebriel.

GM Ahmed Adly is a star player who won in the World Junior Champion (1997), African U20 Champion and also serves as the first Egyptian Grand Master in the history of the country. Meanwhile, Kibrom Weldegebriel has won the Eritrean National Chess Championship on three different occasions. He was born in Addis Ababa in the mid 80’s and moved to Eritrea in 1993. He has since lived in his beloved country and he is a graduate of the Eritrean Institute of Technology. He is currently working at Halay Technical School. The Federation is looking for some bright Chess players to collaborate with the national program and if there are any players who feel they can quickly join the national program you can contact the general secretary Khaled Hassen or you can reply to our website and we shall pass the message to them The Eritrean National Chess Federation is a newly established federation. It was established on June 8, 2019.