The chess events at the 2003 All-Africa Games were held from 5 to 17 October at the Nicon Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
[4] Four women's teams representing Algeria, Botswana, Nigeria and South Africa played a double round-robin held from 5 to 12 October.
[1] Each country was allowed to enter a maximum of three players into each blitz tournament, which were run using the Swiss system.
[3] In the nine-round men's tournament, Egypt's Fouad El-Taher won the gold medal on cumulative tiebreaks over his compatriot Ahmed Adly and Angola's Pedro Aderito after all three players scored seven points.
[6] Abuja also hosted the 2003 African Individual Chess Championships held concurrently with the All-Africa Games on 10 to 17 October.