{"id":215466,"date":"2025-08-06T09:09:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/215466\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T09:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:09:20","slug":"jaylen-browns-connection-with-a-chess-master-sparked-something-much-bigger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/215466\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaylen Brown\u2019s connection with a chess master sparked something much bigger"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2013 Nearly a decade ago, Jaylen Brown<\/a> sat face-to-face with Lawyer Times.<\/p>\n

Times, a lifelong postal service worker (and competitive chess player) from Roxbury, was in the middle of launching an educational chess program for students when he got connected to Brown through a mutual contact: the pastor of the Boston Celtics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The idea of the Future Master Chess Academy<\/a> \u2013 an academy aimed at supporting undeserved youth across Massachusetts \u2013 was something that Brown, who has long loved chess, was thrilled to learn more about.<\/p>\n

Brown was a young player on the Celtics, Times was a lifelong Bostonian and a diehard fan of the team, and the conversation was thoroughly enjoyable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about our missions and our vision \u2013 and they aligned,\u201d Times recalled. \u201cHe wants young people, especially from underrepresented communities, to use their minds, not just to be thought of as athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were no definitive next steps, but it was clear that the two men saw eye-to-eye. Neither knew it at the time, but a critical seed was planted.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 8 years, and Jaylen Brown (alongside Jrue and Lauren Holiday) invested $100,000 into the Future Masters Chess Academy through Boston XChange<\/a>, an incubator he launched last fall to uplift entrepreneurs from underserved communities.<\/p>\n

The investment elevated the chess academy so much so that Times was able to retire from his job at the U.S. Post Office after 40 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing this full-time now,\u201d Times tells me.<\/p>\n

How the collaboration between Jaylen Brown and Lawyer Times came to fruition<\/p>\n

On a hot June day in the outdoor gardens of the Museum of Fine Arts, I sat across Lawyer Times, separated only by a chessboard. Times recounted how he first fell in love with chess \u2013 and how years later, that love allowed him to connect with the Celtics star.<\/p>\n

The now-elite chess player grew up in Roxbury in the 1970s in \u201cone of the poorest communities in Boston\u201d and learned to play the game at just five years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother, who was nine, was teaching my sister,\u201d Times said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how I learned \u2013 just by watching. And we played every day. We would play just like the NBA Finals: best of seven. It was so competitive. It was so enjoyable. And I had a great family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty years later \u2013 and more than 1000 miles south in Marietta, Georgia \u2013 Jaylen Brown learned to play the game of chess, too.<\/p>\n

Brown was taught by his grandfather, Willie, and, just like Times, he instantly fell in love with the game, devouring book after book about chess, joining his school\u2019s chess club, and competing in local tournaments. (This year, Willie was featured in a David Yurman commercial, playing chess against his grandson).<\/p>\n

At Brown\u2019s Bridge camp<\/a> \u2013 an education camp at MIT that his 7uice foundation<\/a> hosts every summer \u2013 we discussed his love for chess, which he credits for making him a better basketball player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish more people asked me about my chess experience growing up,\u201d Brown told me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something Brown has brought up on numerous occasions \u2013 most recently, in an appearance on Hot Ones<\/a> a few months after he won Finals MVP.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best things about my life is that I learned the game of chess,\u201d he said then. \u201cDepending on what gambit, what trap, or what style of play, you\u2019re thinking about the end in the beginning. In life, I like to encourage more to do the same \u2013 think about the beginning in the end. What is your mission? What is your purpose? What do you want your legacy to be?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start to play the game based upon how you want to finish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Brown also faced some pushback when he first learned the game, as he recounted to Times when they first met.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Jaylen] went into a chess club, and he was told that he really didn\u2019t belong there when he was a young person,\u201d Times said. \u201cBut every kid belongs behind a chessboard, we believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown told me his passion for chess was ultimately interrupted by his booming basketball career. As a middle schooler, he balanced basketball and football practices with chess club, but at a certain point, managing it all became untenable, and chess fell to the wayside.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really had some talent for it\u2026 Maybe if I were to stick with it, I could have been a really, really good chess player,\u201d Brown told me. \u201cLike really, really good. A lot of people around me wanted me to spend more time and devote more energy to my chess career. But basketball just dominated my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade later, Jaylen Brown\u2019s love for chess became an investment in Boston<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s middle school chess club is only the beginning of the story. In 2024, just a few months removed from his first-ever NBA championship, he launched Boston XChange, an incubator aimed at supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs and creators by providing them with monetary grants ($100,000 a piece), mentorship, and other resources. The XChange partnered with the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Foundation<\/a> to support ten Boston-based initiatives in its inaugural year.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Times, who had been building up the Future Master Chess Academy since his first conversation with Brown, immediately got to work on a Boston XChange application.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was a good fit, based upon my conversation with him, but I was just hoping that it would all come together,\u201d Times said. \u201cAnd it did. We were selected \u2013 one of 10, out of 1000s of applications. And I\u2019m sure the fact that we\u2019re an education-based program using chess to help young ones develop their minds caught the program\u2019s attention \u2013 and we got the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was nearly a year ago.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Academy has taken off \u2013 now responsible for training hundreds of students in chess from across Massachusetts. It has in-person branches in Ashland and Burlington, as well as a quickly expanding virtual academy centered around making the game as accessible as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funding has just been phenomenal \u2013 one hundred thousand dollars,\u201d Times said, seemingly still in disbelief. \u201cAnd the mentorship, I believe, is even more valuable because we\u2019re getting mentorship from Harvard, MIT, Suffolk. And they stay with us. They really are promoting us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angela Times, Lawyer\u2019s wife, said that part of the goal has been to make sure that the Academy is not reliant on just the initial grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made us think about our business structure and make sure all the ducks are in a row business-wise, from financials to marketing, teaching us how to network, so that way we can be sustainable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The funding allowed Lawyer and Angela to recruit many new kids into the academy. It typically costs $1,000 to support a student\u2019s annual chess education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will give them mentorship within our program,\u201d Lawyer Times said. \u201cIt will give them a tournament or two a month. And, it will get them materials to study the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year has come with several pinch-me moments for Lawyer Times<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown hosted the Future Master Chess Academy \u2013 alongside the nine other Boston XChange grant recipients \u2013 for an intimate dinner at his apartment last season. They sat at family-style tables, and the Holidays and Brown spent all evening getting to know each of the entrepreneurs on a personal level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was phenomenal \u2013 just being right there, talking to him once again, talking about our mission,\u201d Times said. \u201cHis mind is so next level. And he was telling me about how this is an opportunity right now to really change the narrative in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown views chess as an opportunity to hone life skills. He applies the principles of chess to the game of basketball, too, often describing the task of figuring out how to guard other opposing teams\u2019 best scorers as a \u201cgame of chess.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why now, years removed from his chess career, he\u2019s still passionate about getting kids involved in chess. The Future Masters Chess Academy has been a vehicle for allowing others to appreciate the game that\u2019s meant so much, and drawing lessons from the board and applying them to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the role that chess can play in developing young minds \u2013 getting them to think ahead and think about what\u2019s next,\u201d Brown said. \u201cYou\u2019re training your brain \u2013 it\u2019s a game, but you\u2019re exercising your brain to think.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Times, the partnership with Boston XChange has been career-altering. It\u2019s also been really gratifying \u2013 because as a lifelong Bostonian, he really loves the Celtics star.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve followed Jaylen Brown every day since he\u2019s been here,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m that big of a fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

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