The ultimate goal of the US Chess Trust Samford Fund is to bring the world chess championship title back to the US. The Samford Fund does this by supporting the most promising US players. The Samford Family has donated millions of dollars since 1987, when Joel Benjamin was the very first Samford Fellow.

This year’s US Championships once again show the effectiveness of the Samford support.

In the Overall US Championship, 7 out of the 12 participants are Samford Fellows: Ray Robson (2009), Sam Shankland (2013), Sam Sevian (2015-2019), Wesley So (2016), Hans Niemann (2021-current), JeffreyXiong (2017), Abhimanyu Mishra (2021-current)

In the Women’s US Championship, 4 of the 12 participants are Samford Fellows: Irina Krush (2008), Carissa Yip (2020-current), Alice Lee (2022-current), Jennifer Yu (current)

Other current Samford Fellows are Christoper Yoo and Jason Liang.

For a complete list of Samford Fellows through the years, go here.