Make Your Move To The Chess Store

The game of chess has been played for centuries and has long been associated with nobility but it's not something you might immediately associate with Massapequa.

Although you can find people playing  heated games in the park or online,  you'd hardly expect to find a chess store among the delis, dry cleaners, and pizza parlors in the area.

Well look again, because is a unique business in the community. An impressive museum-like showroom dominates the front of this establishment, showcasing countless beautiful chess sets as well as many other games.

There's a backstory to this business that spans more than 30 years. In 1978,  the original owner started out selling computers and computer chess games.

In the 1990's he moved the business to Huntington, where he remained for 18 years.  But eventually, big-time computer chains began to emerge and the owner switched over to selling the chess games exclusively.

Enter current owner Quentin Turner. He started working in the store in 1996 while still in high school. He stayed  there through semester breaks during college and a stint in graduate school. In 2002, when the original owner decided to retire, he offered  Turner, then 22, the chance to own the business, which had just moved to North Massapequa.

Deciding that he needed a break from the rigors of grad school, Turner agreed to the offer. 

While the store gets a majority of its sales via mail-order and through their website, they boast a surprising amount of walk-in business due to the sheer novelty of being one of the few chess stores in existence.

"With any internet business, if you do have a brick and mortar store, people will come in to check it out, "  Turner said.

He's had visitors from as far away as Toronto come by to see the shop. Turner insists there are advantages to having a store as opposed to selling out of his house.

"We could probably save some money by doing that," he said. "But the reality is that the business pays the bills, and most of our storage and shipping is here."

There's also peace of mind for internet customers who know they're buying from an established business. "Even if they're never going to visit it in person, it makes them feel much more comfortable," he said. 

Turner estimates that there are less than a dozen brick and mortar chess stores in the US, but New York is one of the few places where  such a business can actually thrive.

Of the four chess stores in New York, including two in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn, Your Move Chess and Games is actually the best stocked, holding a total of 2800 products within its walls, Turner said. In addition to chess, You Move has expanded to other types of board games, including backgammon, Mah-Jong, poker, checkers,  and dominoes.

Interestingly enough, many of the people who come in to buy chess sets don't actually play the game; instead, they use them as art or a conversation piece. To cater to these customers, Your Move offers almost 200 different "themed" chess sets- everything from the traditional medieval style to football, soccer, baseball, the Civil War, animals, and popular culture sets.

Serious chess players usually just stick with sets consisting of a standard mat board and plastic pieces that they can easily carry and break out  at any time, Turner said.

Although he's been successful, Turner has ideas on how to grow the business more.

"If we can get more space or move more stuff off-site, I'd like to move into the social aspect of chess," he said.

"So many people come in here looking for a place to play, so I'd love to set up a lounge where they can do that. They have places like that in Manhattan and I'd love to try it out here. And since we offer many games other than just chess, it would be a great way to expose people to other types of board games."

Turner  also hopes to start offering lessons at some point to those in need, which might even include himself.

Shockingly Turner is not a regular chess player. "While the other guys that work here have been on chess teams, I'm really an average player," Quentin admitted. "I'm more into some of the other types of interesting board games and stuff."