Adam, a pupil at St Johns in Johannesburg, started competing at a national level at the age of nine and now at 16, ranks amongst our country's top school-going players.

"My Mom taught me to play for fun. I enjoyed it and started playing at school," he says. "I hated being smashed by the other players and decided I was going to be the best."

Apart from playing up to four hours every day when preparing for championships, he studies thick books on chess, containing well over two million positions. He also studies the style of his hero and all-time chess great, Garry Kasparov.

"Chess is about structuring your thinking and being able to think tactically and positionally. In other words, anticipating what's going to happen many moves ahead. I have to think if I play this move now, it will help me by move 20. Ultimately you get to the level of playing where losing even one pawn, the weakest piece - can lose you the game."