Lawyer Times sponsored by Celts’ Jaylen Brown
National Master Lawyer Times has been running the Future Masters Chess Academy in the Boston area for nearly a decade. The 2017 Massachusetts state champion was a local standout at Boston Latin High School where his team won a national championship. Since then, he has continued his chess involvement but has been determined to pass his experience on to aspiring masters.
Photo by Future Masters Chess Academy
When discussing how to popularize chess, Times told The Chess Drum, “We need to market it better. We need to make it less intimidating. We need to make it known that there is structure to chess in the forms of leagues and tournaments. Most don’t know this.” The Boston native will soon have a chance to test his formula.
Recently, Times became an honoree as one of the ten local entrepreneurs sponsored by Boston Celtics star, Jaylen Brown. The NBA finals MVP knows a few things about winning, having led the Celts to their 18th championship this past summer. Brown is also known as a chess enthusiast and understands the value of chess education. He credits chess with molding his style of play.
In an article in Black Enterprise, Jeroslyn JoVonn wrote about Brown’s idea to fund 10 area entrepreneurs for his “wealth-building Incubator program.” Times would be a logical choice for Brown. He and his teammate Jrue Holiday (a two-time NBA champion) met each of the recipients with a desire to create a “Black Wall Street” in Boston.
In collaboration with the JLH Fund, the incubator program will provide visionary creators from underrepresented communities with the business resources needed to successfully prototype, produce, and launch their projects. As part of the incubator, recipients will receive $100,000 in grant funding, access to work and creator spaces, and business services valued at over $150,000.
Brown knows a few things about wealth creation, having signed (at the time) the most lucrative NBA supermax contract at $304 million. He read an article once that “the median net worth of a Black household in Greater Boston is $8.” One of the main ideas is to close the startling income gap in the Boston area. These ten companies represent many industries, including food and beverage, health, haircare, film production, environmental sustainability, artificial intelligence, and clothing. Then, of course, there is chess.
“We are trying to make chess the number one activity in the US of scholastic kids.”
~Lawyer Times
One of the greatest building blocks of wealth is intellectual capital. Many studies have pointed to the intrinsic values of mind sports. While chess is not a formula for financial success, it can certainly help sharpen mental acuity and make the mind more pliable to different variations and possibilities. Times will have a great chance to increase his coverage and perhaps produce the next Black Grandmaster!