Yuzvendra Chahal is one of the most talented bowlers in the world. Over the years, he has achieved a lot of milestones and has created a lot of records while playing for the Indian cricket team. Besides his cricketing skills and incredible talent, Chahal is a big fan of playing chess.
In fact, Chahal has also represented India at various chess tournaments, including the World Youth Chess Championships in the past.
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Chahal, who is currently enjoying his time away from all the cricketing action, recently flew down to Dubai for the Global Chess League as he is the ambassador for SG Alpine Warriors franchise.
Later, on Monday, a picture of him went viral on the internet from the event where he could be seen posing with a mystery woman.
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Who is this mystery woman with Yuzvendra Chahal?
Well, Yuzvendra Chahal was seen posing with South African chess prodigy Jesse February, who is a two-time South African women’s chess champion and a one-time African women’s chess champion. Jesse took to her social media and shared her excitement on meeting the Indian cricketer. She wrote:
“Finally met @yuzi_chahal!”
Check out the picture shared by Jesse
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The tweet shared by Jesse February was later deleted.
Who is Jesse February?
Jesse, who is 26-years-old, hails from Port Elizabeth in South Africa. She won the Women International Masters Title in 2016. As mentioned above, she has also won the South Africa women’s chess champion twice and women’s chess championship once.
It was in May 2021, when February participated in the Women’s African Individual Championship and won the tournament with a score of 7/9.[8]. In 2021, she qualified for the Women’s Chess World Cup, which was held in July. During the marquee event, she was defeated by GM Valentina Gunina 1.5-0.5 in the first round.
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Apart from being the talented chess player that she is, Jesse also runs a streaming platform. Yes, you read that right. In late January 2020, Jesse partnered up with Woman Candidate Master, Rebecca Selkirk and started the streaming channel named ‘HashtagChess’ on Twitch.
On 1 October 2021, February started her personal twitch account with the name ‘Jesse_Feb’.
Recently, Chahal was asked about Chess and the Indian cricket team, Chahal replied that he finds time to play a round or two of chess on the internet every now and then. He said:
“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.”
He added,
“I play chess sometimes during the journey before a game as it helps make me calm. And especially during the flights, I play chess.”
Star ride 💫 @yuzi_chahal @ReheSamay @TaniaSachdev @polborta @Jesse_Feb @GCLlive #chess #GlobalChessLeague pic.twitter.com/kE8sSbvvko
— Keti Tsatsalashvili (@keti_chess) July 4, 2023
Talking about his professional front, Yuzvendra Chahal has not been picked for the upcoming Tests or ODI series between India and West Indies, which will kickstart from next week.
