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[10th October 2008] – Mark Levitt has turned a passion for playing chess and starting a new business into a career. By 15 he was flying around the country playing and winning chess tournaments. By 19 he was playing internationally.

"It was an exciting time. I was winning, I was a world traveller, I had friends in cities around," says the four-time SA chess champion.

By 44, he has founded or been an early investor in several businesses, including the magazine Chess in Southern Africa, online auction company SalesBid.com, mobile payphone company Saicom and search engine marketing company Clicks2Customers. He has also invested in and subsequently exited six other start-ups. Two years ago, wanting to do something for himself that combined his love of chess and business and his software and Internet marketing skills, he founded ChessCube.com

It's an online platform that enables third-party vendors to sell chess-related products and services – videos, e-books, lectures and live tournaments – to a global audience. It has over 180 000 users, 25% of whom are considered regular, and is growing strongly. The aim is to become the world's pre-eminent chess social network website, with over a million users. ChessCube attracts its audience with free chess games and social networking facilities. Revenue will be earned from the third-party service providers who want to market to the community Levitt is building, and through specific services his team is developing. "There are 7m chess players affiliated to Fidè, the World Chess Federation, and at least 10 times more unaffiliated junior members – who are far more online-savvy [than older players]," he says. In addition, the "the real-world chess community is well established, organised and highly structured – perfect fir an Internet-based, social networking platform."

With frequent trips to markets overseas, supporting his many business interests, spending time with his wife Deanne and their two small children, there is not much time left now to play chess competitively. "To compete, you really have to keep your skills sharp with regular play and study and also need to be physically fit - games in a tournament can last five hours, which is mentally and physically gruelling." What chess playing has given him though is the ability to focus and think ahead.

Sasha Planting