Founder
Albert Liang is the founder and executive director of Chess Buddies Foundation. He is a freshman at Stanford University and a graduate of the Westminster Schools, serving as Senior Class President. He first began developing his passion for chess from the ripe age of five, now garnering more than a decade of experience.
Albert holds the titles of National Chess Master and FIDE Candidate Master. Several of his accolades include:
1. Receiving the 2019 United States Chess Federation Scholar-Chessplayer Award
2.Representing the U18 USA Team at the 2018 World Youth Chess Championships in Greece
3. Receiving the bronze medal at the 2017 Pan-American Junior Championships
4. Captaining and founding the Westminster GA State Championship Team, which also placed 4th place at High School Nationals
5. Earning third place at the 2016 National Grade Level Championships
6. Winning multiple GA Junior State Championships
Letter from the Founder
In the September of 2017, with my friend Cheri’s introduction, I visited the Soccer in the Streets launch event at a local mobile home park and met several kids from Agape, a Youth Center for underprivileged kids in the Atlanta area.
For the following three months, I visited E-Rivers Elementary School to teach chess to these kids after their soccer practice Friday afternoons. The speed at which the kids grasped new concepts amazed me. Through bonding and laughing with the kids, I suddenly realized that the opportunity to learn and to enjoy chess to its fullest should not limited to kids who can afford to attend expensive after-school chess programs. In fact, I believe that these underprivileged kids exhibited a unique sense of appreciation for chess and as a result extraordinarily benefited from the game. From the smiles of these kids, I drew inspiration to found the Chess Buddies Foundation, which is dedicated to empowering underprivileged kids through the gift of chess.
The growing enthusiasm of the kids inspires and powers Chess Buddies day in and day out. I continue to work towards spreading my passion to these kids in the hopes of sparking a flare of enthusiasm for chess in order to ignite a movement of improved qualities of life.
Albert
Spring 2018 in Atlanta
Furthermore, in January of 2018, I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting Guatemala with the Westminster JanTerm group. We fundraised and donated money to schools and a clinic operated with the help of Changing Lives in Guatemala, a nonprofit organization. We also built three homes for families living in extreme poverty. On building days, I brought a chess board to play with kids in the family. It amazed me how attracted they were to chess and how I still had the chance to spread my joy for chess almost 2000 miles away from home. I truly began to understand what opportunity means for them with a different perspective. Often, I long to go back to Guatemala to play chess with the kids in person. Unfortunately, this is not a reality. However, I figured that I could personally help in my community. With the incredible support of personnel at Agape and LaAmistad, two nonprofit organizations serving underprivileged families around Atlanta, Chess Buddies Foundation has set up two chess programs at both organizations. We are a group of five top chess teens in Georgia bonded together by our strong passion for chess and unwavering desire to serve our community.
