Meet the Founder

Meet the Founder

Hello, I’m Sanjay Rajjan, a student at Prosper High School. I’m also a member of the varsity tennis team at PHS. I enjoy playing and coaching chess in my free time.

I have been playing chess since a very young age, and it is a game I am very passionate about. It is for this reason that I have participated in many state and national invitational tournaments.

When I started high school as a freshman, I was eager to join the chess club. However, I quickly realized that there actually was not any club for chess. Due to this absence, I founded a chess club and encouraged students to join in order to make a friendly environment where people can have fun and sharpen their thinking.

Years of playing chess gradually led to the transition to sharing my knowledge to others. Coaching chess built my character and further allowed me to support others to play chess. In December of 2022, I offered to teach chess to kids in my neighborhood, and around seven kids were interested. After that class, I was approached by a few parents to teach chess to their children with autism. Through my coaching these kids developed an interest in the game and they also trained their critical thinking skills.

To expand this I started a nonprofit ChessTogether and have coached over 30 kids. I will continue chess coaching as it gives me a lot of satisfaction to serve the community with the skill that I have. My aim is to teach chess to kids and children with special needs to improve their cognitive and visual-spatial abilities. I also plan on finding more volunteer chess coaches to help many other kids to learn chess.