Daaim Shabazz

  • Angola

    Angola’s Rocha win 3rd straight title!

    The site champions the success of Black chess players, or those of African ancestry... includes interviews, playble chess games, puzzles, essays, and current chess news from around the world.

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  • How Bright will Black Stars Shine?

    Jacob Wamala is one of the brightest scholastic stars on the horizon. He is the high school co-champion of Massachusetts and has a sister Jessica Wamala who will represent the state at the Polgar tournament for the second year in a row. Photo by Daaim Shabazz. Looking at the history…

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  • Africa

    Can Pan-Africanism work in Chess?

    Marcus Mosiah Garvey In the year 1900, people of African descent assembled in London, England for the 1st Pan-African Congress. The congress drew many luminaries from the Diaspora including those from mainland Africa, the Caribbean and the U.S. W.E.B. Dubois and Trinidadian Sylvester Williams were the main organizers of the…

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  • History of Afro-Brazilian Chess

    While in Brazil last March, I often scanned the landscape for any sign of chess activity. Of course, chess is played widely in Brazil and the populous country produces some of the strongest players in Latin America. However, when I asked a lecturer about this history of chess among Afro-Brazilians,…

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  • USA

    Historic Moments: James McCune Smith: Essay on CHESS

    There are many heroes in Black history, but many have been long forgotten or at least unappreciated. Chess in the times of the Civil War took on a particular significance as it was often perceived as symbol of refinement and erudition. James McCune Smith was such a man of erudition.…

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  • Historic Moments

    The Caged Bird: The Story of T.A. Thompson

    Theophilus Thompson There are many mysteries in chess history, blank spots that have remained unfilled. One of the largest is the life of Theophilus Augustus Thompson, the talented American problemist of African decent. Jeremy Gaige’s Chess Personalia, the leading source of biographical data on chessists, only provides a single entry…

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  • Drum Majors

    Historic Moments: A Conversation with Walter Harris

    Every now and then I would gaze at the sliver of paper on my desk and see the name “Walter Harris” with a telephone number. It had been given to me by Charles Covington who keeps in contact with him. He thought it may be a good idea for me…

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  • Flashback on Maurice Ashley

    Almost seven years ago, Maurice Ashley realized his dream of becoming an International Grandmaster. The scene was the Manhattan Chess Club and Ashley was having a strong tournament and had beaten Giorgi Kacheishvili and Jonathan Ady and Adrian Negulescu in consecutive rounds to clinch the norm. In an interview with…

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  • Africa

    Historic Moments: Stanley Chumfwa qualifies for FIDE World Cup!

    After a stellar performance at the 2005 African Championships, Stanley Chumfwa shared his impressions of his performance and his prospects for the future with The Chess Drum. He earned a trip to the FIDE World Cup which will start on December 3rd in Elista, Russia. Stanley Chumfwa – ZambiaPhoto by…

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  • The Caribbean Tigers of Chess?

    Back in the 70s several Asian nations took on an aggressive path to economic growth. The level of growth was unprecedented as foreign direct investment poured into the region. The nations comprising of this region would see double-digit growth rates for nearly a decade and would eventually become known as…

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