Picture Credit: Twitter
Jesse February is the name of the girl who’s picture alongside Indian leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal went viral recently. She is a professional chess player from South Africa. February competed in the Women's African Individual Championship in May 2021, taking first place with a score of 7/9. Given that she achieves a grade of 2100, February will be qualified to receive the title of Woman Grandmaster.
The 26-year-old also has entrepreneurship experience as she used to own her own streaming channel specializing in chess called HashtagChess on Twitch until October 2021. After winning the U18 girls division in the South African Junior Closed Chess Championships in 2015, she was chosen to represent her country at the World Youth Chess Championships in Greece in October 2015.
She was also selected to compete in the World University Chess Championships in Hungary in 2015 after winning the University Sport South Africa Closed Chess Championships at Wits University in Johannesburg. She triumphed in the Women's Division of the South African Chess Championship in 2017 and 2019. Her current World Ranking is 28650. February also works as a qualified chess coach on a chess training website Cochess.
Here is all you need to know about Jesse February:
Age: 26 years
Date of Birth: January 28, 1997
Hails from: Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Titles: Woman International Master (WIM, 2016), Woman FIDE Master (WFM, 2015)
Achiev ements:
Two-time South African women’s chess champion (2017, 2019), African women’s chess champion (2021), U18 girls champion at the South Africa junior closed chess championships (2015), first place in the University Sport South Africa closed chess championships (2015), qualified for the Women’s Chess World Cup 2021 and the Women’s Grand Swiss 2021
