Gary Southerland wasn't big enough to go out for high school sports. His jobs were just jobs, not a means to a career, and his college studies didn't amount to much.

But everything fell into place when he sat down at a chessboard. In its perfectly constructed black-and-white universe, Mr. Southerland found beauty and meaning.

"Chess was always his first love and his last love," said his father, Derrell H. Southerland of Rabun Gap, who was already getting trounced by the time his son turned 10.

Gary Roger Southerland, 55, was found dead in his Atlanta residence Thursday. The cause of death has not been determined, according to the Fulton County medical examiner's office. The body was cremated. Beck Funeral Home in Clayton is in charge of arrangements.

The memorial service is 11 a.m. today at Dillard United Methodist Church. The local memorial service will be at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 30 at Emory University's Miller-Ward Alumni House.

Mr. Southerland graduated from Lakeside High School in the late 1960s, took a few courses at DeKalb College and worked in the construction and check-cashing business.

But for more than 20 years, he also was organizing chess tournaments, helping to run chess clubs, writing magazine articles and competing in championship play. Ten years ago, Mr. Southerland became a full-time chess teacher and tournament director.

Ranked as an expert level tourney player, he was even more skilled as an instructor, said David Woolf of Atlanta, president of the Emory Chess Association.

"Gary had an almost uncanny ability to know what people needed to learn and what they needed to do to progress," Mr. Woolf said. "No matter how many times he explained something, it never mattered. He would always just start over, like you were asking for the first time. You were never embarrassed to ask a question and never felt bad when you got the answer from him."

Mr. Southerland could practically recite the United States Chess Federation 350-page rule book backward and forward, Mr. Woolf said.

He taught after-school classes at Chamblee High School, Paideia, the Atlanta School and other campuses throughout DeKalb and Fulton counties, and offered private teaching sessions nights and weekends.

Being a good chess player doesn't always translate into being a good teacher, said Ted Wieber of Duluth, president of the Georgia Chess Association.

"You can have a brilliant grand master championship player who can't teach squat and who can't bring themselves to convey information to other people. But Gary really had a gift, and he had a very low-key and nonthreatening manner of taking it step by step."

With the little time that wasn't consumed by chess, Mr. Southerland read weighty math books, followed the Atlanta Braves farm teams and mastered the gravity-defying intricacies of juggling. But none meant as much to him as his chess classes, his father said.

"He felt like he was teaching youngsters to think," he said. "Gary felt like kids got a lot of training in all kinds of subjects in school, but they didn't get much training in how to think. That's what he could provide."

Survivors include a son, Gary Roger Grizzard of Stockbridge; his mother, Lucy M. Southerland of Rabun Gap; a sister, Donna P. Star of Siler City, N.C.; and a brother, Michael D. Southerland of Northampton, Mass.