About Us
We are siblings out of Saratoga, California; who fell in love with chess back in elementary school. We led our chess team to many regional and state competitions in Indiana and are now continuing pursuing chess through giving back to our community.
Yana Kapoor | Yashom Kapoor
Yashom Kapoor
I have been a huge chess enthusiast since our grandfather brought the game from India over 10 years ago. Since then, I have played at various state and national level tournaments, earning 2 grade level state championships and 2 times runner-up. Since third grade, I have been first board and team captain across elementary and middle school, leading my school to many regional wins and top 10 state appearances. Currently I am the president and team captain of the Saratoga High chess team, most recently having led our team to 4th place in our first California Interschool tournament.
In my junior year, I wanted to find a way to give my love of chess back to my community, and in that process co-founded Chess4EveryMind with my sister. We piloted the program throughout my second semester and during the summer, and now I am working on expanding the program both across the state and across the nation.
Yana Kapoor
My name is Yana Kapoor and I am a Junior at Saratoga High School. I have been playing chess since I was 5 years old, and have been playing competitively with my brother since I was 8 years old. I played on board 2 for my school’s competitive chess team, and on board 1 my last year with the team. My brother and I helped our team win regionals and qualify to states 4 consecutive years. In addition to playing for my school’s team, I competed individually. I won my regional division 2 years in a row, and qualified for states 3 consecutive years. I competed at the national level and received 10th place in my division at the All Girls National chess competition. Through all my chess experience, I have noticed a gap in the type of chess players. Young bright minds with learning disabilities were rarely included and never had the opportunity to shine. Moving from Indiana to California, my brother and I founded a program to make sure we fill this gap, one student at a time. Chess4EveryMind is an initiative where high school volunteers at schools teach chess to students with learning disabilities at their school. Chess4EveryMind has helped us grow in many ways and we are excited to be on a mission to expand nationally and to individuals with learning disabilities of all ages.