Ms. Lee and Mr. Ashley met in 2009 at a personal development program at a resort in the Adirondacks. Part of the program was a chess class run by Mr. Ashley. Ms. Lee did not know how to play, but she watched him play blindfold chess — an exercise in which Mr. Ashley faces away from the board and calls out his moves and has the moves of his opponent told to him. “I was fascinated,” she recalled.

They began talking and every year Ms. Lee went back and their acquaintance was renewed. Last year, during one of their late-night conversations, Mr. Ashley explained how frustrated he had been about the state of chess in the United States.

Image Maurice Ashley, 48, the only African-American chess grandmaster, is no stranger to organizing big-money tournaments. Credit... James Estrin/The New York Times

“When I became a grandmaster in 1999, there seemed to be nowhere to go with it,” he said.

Mr. Ashley described some of the projects and ideas he had tried and also wanted to do. The next day, he said, Ms. Lee came back with “about 50 questions on an Excel spreadsheet.”

Millionaire Chess was born.

Ms. Lee said that she has never seen a chess tournament or run a big event, but she believed that was not important. “I consider this as a business,” she said.

She said that she saw Millionaire Chess as a three- to five-year investment, which would include attracting corporate sponsorships and holding tournaments in other cities. “We are looking at an Easter option right now,” she said. She hopes to break even by next year.

The partnership has worked thus far because each leaves the other to make decisions in his or her area of expertise.