the company was founded in 1998 by chess enthusiast david cordover, who was only 20 years old at the time. the start-up funds were provided by the cash prize when cordover won the nescafé "big break award" contest for his business plan vision of bringing chess to every school student in australia. in an article in "teacher: the national education magazine", cordover described the educational and character-development benefits of chess competition for young children; and wrote that "research has shown that chess confers many educational benefits, including developing problem-solving ability, abstract analytical skill, spatial ability, memory and concentration."