Master move: Greater Memphis Chess Center doing brisk business
By Jonathan Devin
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Posted February 9, 2011 at 11:05 p.m.
Mark Beatty has one of the few places in town where nearly a hundred elementary school-aged children can gather and remain completely quiet for long periods of time.
In fact, the only ones exhibiting raucous behavior at Beatty's place tend to be kings and queens and their small armies of subjects.
In January, Beatty, his wife, Randi, and their 19-year-old son, Jonathan, opened the Greater Memphis Chess Center on Shelby Oaks Drive in a 3,800-square-foot facility.
The center is a for-profit operation, and from all appearances, it's making money.
"The goal is to get children ready to play in adult tournaments and to get the schools ready to compete on a national level," said Beatty, who also owns a commercial carpet cleaning business.
"That's one disadvantage we have over say New York or California schools -- they have bigger chess centers where they can play tournaments more often."
Beatty has been coaching the chess club at Grahamwood Elementary School where some 140 students practice playing each week. He got started about 12 years ago when Jonathan got interested in the game.
Later Beatty started offering weekend chess camps for kids in rented hotel meeting rooms.
"I said if I'm paying this much to rent a room, why don't I try to find some place so I can hold my camps in a facility all the time," said Beatty. "Then it evolved into needing a place to do tournaments. It got bigger and bigger so we decided to just do it."
The current economic climate and the prospect of school consolidation also played a role in his decision to sign a three-year lease.
Because many retail bays and offices are sitting vacant and owners are ready to negotiate, Beatty was able to get a reasonable lease.
Full article here.
