JERALD TIMES is a native New Yorker and is the  2021 Chess Educator of the Year.  

Jerald started playing chess at eleven, which he says was too old to start.  But somehow, he caught up and became the Harlem Chess Champion at age fourteen.  In 2002, he reached a 2400 Fide rating but decided to coach and direct inner-city chess programs.  Jerald graduated from Rice High School in Manhattan and received his BA from St. John's University.

Early in his career, Jerald worked with the Teachers and Writers Collaborative and taught poetry to students of all grade levels. While there, he organized poetry readings in homeless shelters and drug rehab programs, resulting in poetic pamphlets.

Jerald is also an accomplished and published poet. While residing and acting as curator at the Langston Hughes House, Jerald wrote Da' Badman Songs – a factual collection of African American folkloric poems.

Jerald worked for the Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF) at Manhattan's acclaimed Mott Hall School. He has led the Mott Hall Dark Nights to several national chess titles. He was the Chess Director for the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) and was hired by Geoffrey Canada. Times spent three years teaching chess in South Africa and rose from township teacher to becoming the country's national coach. Jerald created the first holistic chess program in the country, which integrated storytelling, music, tai chi, and chess. 

In 2019, Times became the Chess Director of Success Academy Charter Schools. While Director, he wrote their curriculum singlehandedly and led their teams to four national titles. In 2023, Times became the coach for Howard University in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship and led them to a top-ten placement.

In his illustrious journey, Jerald was written about twice in the New York Times, in 2002 and 2015 articles. Times was featured in a New York Magazine piece in 2005. After three years in South Africa, he gave his account of his experience with “Chess Scene In New York.”

Times has been a traveling coach at the Dalton school since 2013 and now wishes to start a digital chess platform for marginalized communities called ‘Chess Across Borders. For more about Jerald's philosophy on chess, we refer you to his interview with ChessBase Magazine in May 2020 and his interview with chess.com in March 2023.