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About Chess.et

Ethiopia's home for chess lovers.

የኢትዮጵያ የቼዝ ቤት — ተማር። ተጫወት። እደግ።

Chess.et is a free chess platform built in Addis Ababa for Ethiopian players: unlimited Stockfish analysis, unlimited tactics puzzles, national ratings, local clubs and events, and a full beginner course in Amharic. One place where the whole country plays, studies, and gets stronger together.

Built for the country that plays everywhere.

Chess has never needed an invitation in Ethiopia. It lives in school corridors and club rooms, on café tables in Piassa and park benches in Addis Ababa, on boards carried between neighbours in Bahir Dar, Hawassa and Mekelle. Long before international chess arrived, Ethiopians were already playing Senterej, our own ancient form of the game. What was missing was never the love of chess. It was a place of our own.

For years, Ethiopian players were scattered across foreign platforms: leaderboards that never knew our cities, lessons that never spoke our language, and premium subscriptions priced for other economies. A player in Addis paying in dollars for an engine report is a player who eventually stops paying — and often stops improving.

Chess.et exists to remove that barrier completely. It is one platform where a beginner learning how the knight moves and a club player preparing for the national championship get the same world-class tools, at the same price: nothing. Every game analysed by a real engine. Every puzzle, unlimited. A national ladder, Chess.com-hosted tournaments, a club directory, and a safe academy for kids — all under one roof, built here, for here.

The picture today

Where Ethiopian chess actually stands.

We built Chess.et because of these numbers, not in spite of them. Here is the honest state of the game in Ethiopia.

2146Ethiopia's highest classical FIDE rating
0Active Grandmasters or International Masters
1Active FIDE Master in the federation
120+Federations ranked ahead of Ethiopia

The top of the Ethiopian rating list

Ethiopia's strongest classical players, by standard FIDE rating, are led by FIDE Master Leykun Mesfin — the country's highest rated player and a veteran of the Chess Olympiad.

Top Ethiopian chess players by standard (classical) FIDE rating.
#PlayerTitleClassical
1Leykun MesfinFM2146
2Estube Haileselassie TadeseCM2116
3Miki Abdissa Bekele2106
4Yoseph Kifle Kebede2100
5Robel Brhane Abrha2072
6Addisalem Temesgen Tsige2056

Ratings from the standard FIDE rating list, August 2026. Source: ratings.fide.com. Ratings are published monthly and this table is updated with each new list.

Where the federation sits globally

FIDE ranks national federations by the average rating of their top ten active classical players. Ethiopia's top ten currently average somewhere between 1900 and 2000, which places the federation outside the world's top 120 and behind the strongest African federations — Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Nigeria. For context, a top-ten average above 2400 is roughly what it takes to enter the global top 50.

Within East Africa the picture is more encouraging. Ethiopia is a genuinely competitive developmental federation, and Ethiopian players regularly reach the podium at FIDE Zone 4.4 events. Youth participation in Addis Ababa is growing quickly through school programmes and national individual championships — the base is widening even while the peak stays flat.

Why the gap exists

The bottleneck is not talent. It is three structural things, and every one of them is fixable.

Rated games against strong opposition. You cannot cross 2400 by only playing opponents rated 1900. IM and GM norms require rated games against titled players, which means either expensive international travel or norm tournaments hosted at home with invited foreign Grandmasters.

Access to serious training tools. Modern improvement runs on engines, databases and structured tactics work. When those sit behind subscriptions priced in dollars, an entire country of players trains without them.

A base wide enough to produce outliers. Countries that produce Grandmasters produce them out of hundreds of thousands of school players, not hundreds. Armenia and India did it by putting chess into the school day.

Our part in it

We can't hire a Grandmaster. We can fix the tools.

Chess.et is not a federation and it does not run norm tournaments. What a platform can do is remove the everyday obstacles between an Ethiopian player and getting better.

01

Engine access for everyone

Stockfish runs in your browser, free and unlimited, with move grades, accuracy scores and an evaluation graph. The same analysis a titled player uses. Analyse a game →

02

Tactics at national scale

A rated puzzle trainer with hundreds of thousands of positions sorted by theme and difficulty, so every player has a lifetime of graded work. Solve puzzles →

03

Chess taught in Amharic

A full beginner course — pieces, castling, en passant, promotion and the basic checkmates. Start learning →

04

A pipeline that starts young

A dedicated Kids Academy with guided lessons and no open chat, plus a club directory and events calendar to connect young players to real boards. Visit Kids →

What we stand for

Four promises we build by.

Every feature we ship gets measured against these. If it breaks one of them, it doesn't ship.

01

Improvement is free

Unlimited engine analysis and unlimited puzzles for every player, forever. Getting better at chess should never sit behind a paywall.

02

Built for Ethiopia

National rankings, city leaderboards, local clubs, and pricing in Birr. A platform shaped around how chess is actually played here.

03

One community

From first-time players to club masters, everyone shares the same boards, the same tournaments, and the same national ladder.

04

Kids play safe

A dedicated Kids Academy with guided lessons and no open chat, so the next generation falls in love with the game safely.

On the board today

Everything below is live right now.

No waitlists, no beta invites. Open any of these and start playing.

Questions

Ethiopian chess, answered.

The things people search for most, in one place.

Who is the highest rated chess player in Ethiopia?

FIDE Master Leykun Mesfin is Ethiopia's highest rated classical player and the federation's only active FM at the top of the list. He has represented Ethiopia at the Chess Olympiad.

Does Ethiopia have a chess grandmaster?

Not yet. Ethiopia currently has no active Grandmasters and no active International Masters. The strongest Ethiopian players hold FIDE Master and Candidate Master titles. Earning IM and GM norms requires rated games against titled opponents, which is why norm tournaments hosted inside Ethiopia matter so much for the next generation.

Where does Ethiopia rank among world chess federations?

FIDE ranks federations by the average rating of their top ten active classical players. Ethiopia's top ten average sits roughly between 1900 and 2000, placing the federation outside the world's top 120 and behind Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Nigeria among African federations.

Is Chess.et free to use?

Yes. Engine analysis and puzzle training are free and unlimited, with no move caps and no daily limits. You can play and analyse as a guest, and creating an account costs nothing.

Is Chess.et available in Amharic?

Yes. The page will be transalated into Amharic once phase one development completes. See the lessons →

How do I find a chess club in Addis Ababa?

Our club directory lists clubs by city, meeting times and venue, and lets club organisers register their own. Browse clubs →

Pull up a chair.

Whether it's your first game or your five-hundredth, there's a seat at the board for you.