​Chess Networking Event for Engineering Leaders ♟️

​Ridge Ventures and Orion Innovation invite you to join our monthly chess networking community event — a gathering where Bay Area engineering and product leaders connect over strategy, conversation, and timeless games.

​What to expect:

• ​All skill levels are welcome — from the simply curious who want to watch and learn, to casual players and seasoned competitors.

• ​Quality networking — small, curated group of engineering leaders and product leaders.

• ​Games with the Chess Masters — challenge a pro, learn new strategies, or simply watch world-class moves up close.

• ​All formats you loved — simuls and one-on-ones.

• ​Special guests — chess masters, innovators, and friends from our community.

​Come to play. Come to connect. Come to have fun.

​The only place where ChatGPT cannot make your move for you. Want to bet?

​Bring a colleague or a friend in engineering leadership, but please don’t forget to register.

​Special guests:

​Yuanling Yuan (who goes by YY) is a Woman International Master in chess, one of the top-ranked female chess players in Canada, and a Partner at SignalFire, a $3B AUM AI-native and data-driven venture capital fund. YY currently leads the firm's early-stage investments in vertical AI companies, such as healthcare and legal. 

​She became the youngest Canadian ever to earn the WIM title and represented Canada in multiple Women’s Chess Olympiads and the Women’s World Championship.

​A former national champion and founder of Chess in the Library, a nonprofit organization that ran more than 30 chess programs in public libraries across Canada, YY has long been an advocate for making chess more accessible.

​A Yale graduate, she now applies the strategic and analytical mindset honed through chess to venture investing. Apart from chess, she loves hip-hop dancing and indulging in a great book or sci-fi show.

​​Aryan Achuthan is a National Master in chess and a freshman at UC Berkeley studying Data Science, aspiring to become an entrepreneur.

​Aryan has lived his entire life in the Bay, and having played chess for over a decade now, the game has been a major pillar of his growth as a person.

​He's a 3-time National Champion and 9-time California State Champion, now competing in the Collegiate Chess League (CCL) as Board 1 for the UC Berkeley Chess Team.

​With aspirations of earning the International Master title and addressing the lack of accessibility in chess through startup ventures, Aryan is passionate about sharing his love for chess with others.

​Organizers:

​Ridge Ventures is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2007. Ridge Ventures specializes in Seed and Series A funding, focusing on experienced founders transforming software interaction in technology, enterprise, and consumer markets. 

​Orion Innovation is a leading digital transformation and product development services firm. We help companies and startups across various sectors with solving SW technology challenges by scaling the engineering capacity and co-innovating to design high-quality solutions across many industries including industrial IoT, telecom and media, professional services, financial services, healthcare and life sciences, sports and entertainment, and education.