Savvy · YMChess Assistant
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Hi — I'm Savvy, the Young Minds Chess assistant. Looking to enroll a child, donate, volunteer, or learn about our programs? I'm here to help.
Young Minds Chess Foundation is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Charell Williams to bring chess, strategy, and STEM education to underserved youth across Washington State.
Chess clubs, STEM programs, and after-school enrichment usually arrive in the schools that already have everything. Private academies. Wealthy district lines. The schools that don't need them most are the ones who get them first.
YMChess was founded to flip that. We bring chess and STEM programs into elementary schools, after-school programs, community centers, and youth services organizations in the neighborhoods where kids are usually the last to be invited. Free or sliding-scale. No assumptions about background or skill level.
"The same cognitive architecture that makes a great chess player makes a great engineer, scientist, or programmer. So why are we only teaching it to some kids?"
We are a 501(c)(3) — federally recognized, IRS-verified, and operating under a real nonprofit structure with the accountability that comes with it. Donations are tax-deductible. Sponsorship dollars go into chess sets, instruction time, and access for kids.
Charell is a chess educator, published author of AstroChess: How Your Zodiac Sign Influences Your Moves, technology professional, and longtime youth mentor. He's worked in IT, school district technology, and youth behavioral health, and he founded YMChess because the work he was doing with kids one-on-one needed a structure that could reach further.
He grew up in Watts and South Central Los Angeles. Chess was one of the first things in his life that taught him strategy could be more powerful than circumstance. The foundation exists to put that same tool in front of as many kids as possible.
Charell is also a Past Worshipful Master in Freemasonry, certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid and Washington State CANS 3.0, and the founder of TechSavvy Solutions — the technology brand that funds and supports much of YMChess's operational backbone.
If a family can't afford it, we find a way to make it work. No child is turned away from a program because of cost. Sliding scale, scholarship spots, donor-funded seats — whatever it takes.
We teach chess the way a serious club teaches chess. Openings, tactics, endgames, tournaments. Kids deserve real coaching, not a token program that exists to check a box.
Pattern recognition. Algorithmic thinking. Math reasoning. We don't teach chess in isolation — we connect it explicitly to the STEM skills that determine economic opportunity in the 21st century.
Kids benefit most from caring adults who keep showing up. Our coaches and volunteers aren't there for résumé credit — they're there because they believe in the kids in front of them.
We're not going to promise your kid will become a grandmaster. We promise they'll be respected, taught well, and given a real shot at developing skills that compound for the rest of their lives.
Federally recognized public charity. IRS determination letter on file. Donations are tax-deductible. Audited operating practices. The paperwork backs up the work.
Enroll a child. Make a donation. Volunteer your time. Bring YMChess to your school. Whatever the move, Charell follows up personally.
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