Jesse February has turned chess into a life of adventure. A three-time South African Women’s Champion and two-time African Women’s Champion, she’s carried her country’s flag across the board, then built a second career commentating for Chess.com, Lichess, FIDE and World Chess, and streaming on Twitch and YouTube since 2020.

She now calls Riyadh home, where she co-founded AR Chess Academy, the first of its kind in the Saudi capital, chasing the game to around 30 countries along the way. Off the board, she’s a devoted husky-mom to Koda, a committed pasta enthusiast, and someone who lives by a simple rule: if it scares you a little, it’s probably worth doing. By that measure, chess at the bottom of the world was never really a question.