On Selling the Marshall Chess Club Building

May 5, 2025

The following is a revised letter I shared with the Marshall Chess Club Board of Governors regarding the current proposal to sell the club building.

Throughout, I reference the original sale proposal and a later-published Q&A addressing initial feedback the Board received from members. In good faith, I am sharing both of these as well to provide relevant context.

Hello Board of Governors,

Thank you for sharing the current thoughts on selling the building. This is a massive decision, and I appreciate the Board soliciting feedback from members of our community.

Below, I outline my own thoughts on the matter. These are informed by a few perspectives:

As an active member of the club (#24 on the active players list as of April 29, 2025) interested in growing the Marshall's capabilities
As a new parent whose family sees the Marshall as our third space
As an entrepreneur who has spent years in the startup world and understands the challenge of making consequential decisions in uncertain times

In speaking with my peers, I'm confident these thoughts are representative of a portion of active members. I hope expressing these ideas helps the Board navigate whether or not to proceed with selling the building.

On Space

Space is a fundamental quality of a chess position. The side with more space enjoys more squares for their pieces. This is why trading material when facing a space disadvantage makes sense – the relative quality of our pieces is lower when they have less squares to access.

We face a similar situation at 23 West 10th today. Enthusiasm for chess is at an all-time high, yet the townhouse cannot properly accommodate it. Tournament registrations reach capacity, and paying members are turned away. The bathrooms have lines, and valuable minutes are lost mid-game. Noise travels too easily, and players analyzing in the skittles room are shushed.

Most recently, the World Rapid & Blitz Championship illustrates a strategic shortcoming. Many view NYC as the Mecca of American chess, with the Marshall as its primary steward. The world championship was a perfect moment to host a series of events–lectures, simuls, exhibitions–with top 10 players like Magnus, Fabiano, Hikaru, etc. These events would have been undeniably popular, generating revenue and attracting members and non-members. Unfortunately, the club's limited capacity left us on the sidelines. We could not take advantage of the golden opportunity.

I have been playing USCF rated chess since 2001, but I will always remember my first visit to the Marshall two decades later. Accompanied by long-time member and good friend Ethan Klein, I felt like Harry Potter entering Hogwarts for the first time. The sense of history was palpable, the aura of former legends still present. Like many others, I still feel the same sense of pride when walking through our storied halls. The townhouse isn't just a club location. It is a temple.

The club also benefits from the surrounding West Village neighborhood. The Village boasts world-class venues in the arts like Blue Note Jazz Club and the Comedy Cellar. The Marshall, blending into the neighborhood's bohemian backdrop, is no different.

This past year, my partner – an active club member, herself – and I had the privilege of welcoming to the world a son, Indra. Through the kindness and encouragement of Board and Staff members, Indra has been fortunate to visit the club on numerous occasions. Whether it's for hosted events like Susan Polgar's talk or spectating during a Friday FIDE Blitz, I feel both lucky and proud that we belong to a community which welcomes and embraces the youngest among us.

Indra enjoying the Marshall Chess Club atmosphere

Even though he's still learning how the pieces move, Indra loves visiting the Marshall :')

My new role as a parent prompts me to consider what I want the next century of the Marshall Chess Club to look like for Indra and other future GMs. I am a firm believer that the current chess boom is a net positive for the chess world, and the Marshall has a responsibility to maintain and accelerate current levels of enthusiasm. Any revenue the club generates is downstream of the broader popularity of chess, which we are indirectly responsible for and can make an impact on via the Club's international reputation.

Touch Move

The current limitations of the townhouse are real, and I appreciate the need to find solutions. However, I believe selling the townhouse is premature, and alternate options should be explored.

We don't get takebacks on selling. Once done, we permanently close the door of our historic building. No longer can we walk the same halls shared by legends like Bobby Fischer, José Raúl Capablanca, and Frank Marshall. The loss for our membership and the larger American chess community would be permanent.

Selling the building is a critical, touch-move choice and should only be done as a last resort. I am sympathetic to the building's current limitations, but I disagree we need to make such a drastic move to solve them. The Lean Startup philosophy has shaped how I think about approaching critical decisions – testing hypotheses by experimenting with smaller, reversible changes before committing to permanent moves. To solve the space issue, we need to experiment, not exit the building.

A few options worth exploring:

Renting out a second club location. The recent Spectator issue addressed renting extra space on the weekends. I agree this would be cost-ineffective and logistically challenging. My proposal is to rent a semi-permanent (1 to 3 years) space as a dedicated second site of the Marshall Chess Club. Doing so would provide valuable qualitative and quantitative data on if added space alleviates some of the current problems we face. This does not need to be limited to Manhattan, where commercial real estate costs are quite high. We can look to other boroughs and save money without sacrificing quality. For example, Williamsburg in Brooklyn is considered a top-tier neighborhood of NYC, accessible via public transportation, and costs less per sq ft than many Manhattan neighborhoods. Finally, even if such an experiment failed, any financial loss would be constrained to the course of the lease.
Using the apartments upstairs. In the recent Q&A, it's mentioned that taking over one of the apartments on the third floor would eliminate $5,000 of rental income per month ($60,000 annually). Given that the Club is already on solid financial footing (as stated in the Q&A), repurposing a single unit on the third floor is a low-risk way to expand the Club's footprint immediately: no renovation of a second building and a clearly capped opportunity cost that we could reverse simply by re-listing the apartment if needed.
Applying for historic landmark status. Can we obtain tax benefits if approved as a historic landmark? In particular, would this reduce our property tax costs?

I appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback on the sale of the building. Given the importance of such a move, I encourage the Board to consider hosting a members' town hall, allowing the community to debate openly, explore ideas collaboratively, and ultimately build consensus around the best path forward for our beloved Marshall Chess Club.

Regards,

NM Aakaash Meduri