Who Is Jesse February, The Girl From Viral Pic With Indian Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, Know All About Her

It is no secret that Team India and Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal is a big fan of playing chess. Chahal, in fact, flew down to Dubai recently to Dubai recently for the Global Chess League as he is the ambassador for SG Alpine Warriors franchise.

Chahal, in fact, has also represented India at the World Youth Chess Championships in the past. On Monday, a picture went viral on social media with Chahal posing with a ‘mystery girl’ in Dubai during the Global Chess League 2023.

The ‘mystery girl’ is actually South African chess prodigy Jesse February. Jesse, a two-time South African women’s chess champion and a one-time African women’s chess champion, captioned her tweet, “Finally met @yuzi_chahal!”

Just 2 hardcore cricket fans. pic.twitter.com/UBgN3TTmxy — Jesse February (@Jesse_Feb) June 25, 2023

Jesse February’s achievements

The 26-year-old from Port Elizabeth in South Africa, hold the Women International Masters Title from 2016. She is a two-time South Africa women’s chess champion as well as a former African women’s chess champion.

In May 2021, February participated in the Women’s African Individual Championship, winning the event with a score of 7/9.[8] With this victory, February is eligible to be awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster, provided she attains a rating of 2100.

She qualified for the Women’s Chess World Cup 2021 held in July, where she was defeated by GM Valentina Gunina 1.5-0.5 in the first round.

Jesse February also runs a streaming platform

In late January 2020, Jesse February partnered up with Woman Candidate Master, Rebecca Selkirk to start the HashtagChess channel on the streaming platform Twitch which has amassed a following of over ten thousand as of 2021.

On 1 October 2021, February announced that she should be leaving HashtagChess, making Selkirk the sole owner of the channel, and start streaming on her personal twitch account (Jesse_Feb). The split was amicable with ‘different career and content creation goals’ being cited as the primary reasons.

Meanwhile, Chahal has not been picked for the Tests or ODI series between India and West Indies which gets underway next week. When asked about Chess and the Indian cricket team, Chahal said that they play while travelling. “In the Indian team, there is no one who can beat me (laughs). Sometimes I play with R Ashwin, and then there is Shanker Basu, our trainer with whom I used to play. We used to play quite a bit during the flights and when we were travelling.”

Chahal, who finds time to indulge in a round of chess on the internet every now and then, said, “I play chess sometimes during the journey before a game as it helps make me calm. And especially during the flights, I play chess.”