Jen Shahade at The Washington Post: "Five Myths About Chess"

Hola darlings!  Hope you are all staying warm and safe.  it's getting brisker and colder by the day here, soon I'll be inside nearly full-time except for my daily 30 minute exercise outdoors doing - whatever - just moving and breathing trying to stay warm, for emotional health sessions (they help keep me in physical as well as emotional/mental health shape).

I've got a handful of articles to post links to about Netflix's "The Queen's Gambit," based on the novel by Walter Tevis that I promise to post soon, mostly good stuff from The New York Times.  Today up popped this article by WGM Jen Shahade at WaPo.

Five Myths About Chess

By Jennifer Shahade
November 20, 2020

Chess is having a moment. Chess is also having a decade. The game has been on an upward trajectory in pop culture ever since the charismatic Magnus Carlsen, who has even worked as a model, won the World Chess Championship in 2013. That same year, Congress declared St. Louis the country’s “chess capital.” Now Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” has ratcheted interest up to new heights. As millions of converts download chess apps and buy boards, it’s time to dispel a few myths about this ancient game.

Myth No. 1.  Chess is Dull and Unsexy. [My comment: HA!]

"Does it seem to you like there just isn’t enough televised chess on these days?” David Letterman joked sarcastically in 1989. More recently, coverage of “The Queen’s Gambit” has expressed doubt about the visual and dramatic appeal of the game. Vanity Fair said that, to most people, the game seems “dull and buttoned-up.” And the Cut cried, “The Sexiest Show on Television Is About . . . Chess?"

The Netflix series plays up the royal game’s glamorous side and, yes, its sensual side. But the connection between chess and sex goes back centuries. Historian Marilyn Yalom writes that medieval artists — in manuscript illustrations, tapestries and stained-glass windows, among other art forms — treated the game as synonymous with seduction: “A chess scene between a man and a woman signified romance.” Yalom also describes a work of fiction from around 1400, called “The Book of Erotic Chess,” in which “each move on the board represented a decisive moment in the game of love” between the characters.

Today’s international chess competitions often feature just one game a day, in the midafternoon — leaving players with plenty of time to connect at drinks, long dinners and parties. Some enthusiasts have even compiled lists of the greatest “chess couples” to have “found romance over the 64 squares,” and who have a combined rating of over 5000 from the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Myth No. 2.  It takes genius to win at chess. [My comment:  It doesn't take genius, but it does take rhythm and being a good dancer helps a great deal.  And yes, I know this probably won't make sense to male players, HA!]

The public often associates chess with intelligence — and chess champions with preternatural brilliance. In the second episode of “The Queen’s Gambit,” a librarian tells the protagonist, Beth Harmon, that a grandmaster is a “genius player.” A Wired article about chess in pop culture cited the joy of “watching genius at work.” In 2009, Time asked Magnus Carlsen how he dealt with people “assuming you are 40,000 times more intelligent” than average: “You’re clearly not a normal intellect,” the interviewer declared.

Carlsen, the highest-rated grandmaster in history, has reiterated many times that he considers himself “a normal person.” In an interview with Rainn Wilson in 2013, he said that the first sentence of his autobiography would be: “I am not a genius.” What differentiated him from his competitors, he explained, was commitment; he didn’t treat chess as a “normal hobby."

FIDE recognizes more than 1,700 grandmasters — and what they have in common is hard work. Chess playing is a skill more than a fixed trait; excellence takes dedication, time and a love for the process. Along with practice games and tournaments, and individual and group coaching sessions, a serious chess training regimen often includes the study of top players’ games, opening strategies, endgames and checkmating patterns. Serious players also use computers to deeply analyze their own games.

Myth No. 3.  Strong chess players see dozens of moves ahead. [My comment:  Oh brother.  Just stay off of drugs and booze before playing and let your instincts take over.  Unlike the fictional Beth Harmon, you really are not at your best when you're drug or alcohol hung-over.]

It’s an old cliche that the best players plot long lines of future moves. In a 2010 profile, Time magazine described Carlsen’s “beautiful mind” and how he “often calculates 20 moves ahead.” A recent ESPN story about an 8-year-old chess prodigy similarly marveled at his “ability to think 20 moves ahead."

In fact, great chess players use a combination of strategic intuition, pattern recognition and calculation to decide their moves; intuition alone is plenty to beat much weaker players. Chess players do think deeply about a position and its possible outcomes. But they look sideways as much as straight ahead, scanning the board to see any possible moves they are missing in their current position. If I look ahead three moves but check five different counters, that’s more total moves than looking down a 10-move tunnel. It’s much more useful, too: If you miss your opponent’s “reply” in the middle of your 10-move line, all the energy you spent looking beyond your error is wasted. Man plans, God laughs — or as we say in chess, “Long variation, wrong variation."

Myth No. 4.  Deep Blue's win in 1997 meant the end of chess.  [My comment:  Give me a computer that looks and talks and moves like Don Johnson ("Miami Vice") in his hey-day and then we'll talk, but only if Phil Collins' iconic "In The Air Tonight" is playing in the background...  I ask you, what woman in her not so right mind would not want to sit across the board from such a gorgeous hunk of male and - well, never mind.]

Don Johnson color art                 

"What would it really mean if Deep Blue won?”  

Newsweek asked before the match between Garry Kasparov and IBM’s computer engine: “Some people have argued whether chess would be diminished by this upheaval.” I got a chance to visit the match in New York; I remember the audience’s simultaneous horror and awe at Kasparov’s loss — and the laments that the computer had “solved” chess. More recently, New Scientist claimed that computers had been “ruining” chess ever since Deep Blue and that AI was “conquering” the game.

It’s true that, in time, the top computers dismantled the top humans so easily it was no longer competitive enough to be fun, and the epic man vs. machine matches were discontinued. But the death knell was premature. The game’s popularity has soared, as players and viewers find new ways to connect online. According to the founder of Chess.com, the site’s traffic has grown up to 50-percent each year since its founding in 2007; it had a huge spike in registrations and site use in 2020, due to the pandemic and “The Queen’s Gambit.” And where, in 2015, a few dozen people watched streams of chess on Twitch at any given time, today the average viewership is over 4,000, according to Fast Company.

At any rate, chess has not been “solved.” Even the top computers don’t know the best sequence of moves in every position — they just play enough fantastic moves (and very few bad ones) that they beat humans over and over. Recent progress in artificial intelligence shows just how much more there is to explore: In 2018, Google’s AlphaZero achieved new levels of greatness when it defeated Stockfish, a traditional computer chess program, entrancing the chess world with sacrifices and pawn storms.

Myth No. 5.  The King is the most important piece in chess.  [My comment:  You don't want to ask Donald Trump that question right now...  Ask Philidor - he knows.]

Teachers and how-to guides often reiterate that, while the queen is the most powerful piece, the king is the most important — a principle repeated in online chess tutorials and enshrined on Wikipedia.

But eight foot-soldiers have something to say about that. The mighty pawn, the only piece that captures differently than it moves, trudges ahead one step at a time. Since it’s the only piece that cannot move backward, every push is final. Pawns form the bones of the game: Play would be a mushy mess without them.

Pawn power was sent to the lab for study when, this year, Alpha Zero played against itself in nine variations on chess. Five of the variants tweaked the rules governing pawns. In torpedo chess, in which pawns can move two squares at a time, tactical volatility was hugely increased. Another variant, in which pawns moved backward, led to fewer decisive games, since that rule allowed for the reversal of strategic errors. Change the pawn, and you shake the very essence of the game. In the words of 18th-century French chess champion Francois-Andre Danican Philidor, “The pawns are the soul of chess."

Jennifer Shahade is a chess champion, author, poker player and Women’s Program Director at U.S. Chess. (c) The Washington Post. (Excluding the Don Johnson photo).  

Supernationals V and LOTS of Chess Drama!

Hola darlings!

Well - lots of news!  I normally do not follow scholastic chess events (with a few exceptions).  But ever since those dedicated coaches and teachers at IS 318 in Brooklyn brought their kids into national prominence, and because I am a fan of Elizabeth Vicary Spiegel and supporter of her efforts, I try do check the news on occasion to see what IS 318 is doing.  And - wow, they've snuck up on me!  Supernationals are taking place this year in Nashville, Tennessee and begin in just two more days, April 5 - 7!

IS 318, which has become internationally famous for its excellent chess program and great results with kids that, let's face it, some people consider "throw-aways", is defending it's K-12 title -- how excellent is that!!!!! 

And - gasp - Elizabeth Vicary Spiegel will NOT be able to accompany "her kids" to Nashville.  She is in the early stages of a much-desired pregnancy and is experiencing some complications, you see, and is prohibited from travelling at the present time.  B-U-M-M-E-R!  I'm not revealing any delicate secrets here - she's written all about it in her blog.   Lizzy - SKYPE!  Face-to-face with the kids has never been easier, and it's free.  'course, she's probably already planning on that...

While Coach Spiegel won't be in Nashville, WIM Dr. Alexey Root will be, as coach to a K-12 team from Denton, Texas.  She is going to be one busy lady, too.  Not only is she coaching, she'll be hosting a seminar: WIM Alexey Root Seminar - Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14 ... Saturday at 10 AM.

From what Dr. Root wrote in her article for USCF, it appears that UT-Dallas will have a strong presence at Supernationals V, scouting for potential recruits for its collegiate-level chess team. 

A little background...  The ultimate prize among colleges and universities that sponsor a chess team is to win the Chess equivalent of the "Final Four."  Until the advent of the Polgar Dynamic Duo at Texas Tech in 2007, it had been more or less taken for granted that UT-Dallas or the University of Maryland-Baltimore, would win the coveted title, year after boring year.  Susan Polgar changed the equation - in a BIG FRICKING WAY!  She won TWO titles for Texas Tech, suddenly putting it on the MAP, before (half-way through what was generally understood to be a 10-year long "understanding") moving her program (under the auspices of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) to St. Louis, Missouri and Webster University at the end of Spring Term, 2012, AND taking the entire "A" Team with her. Not without some controversy.  The bottom line is that Polgar's grateful beneficiary, Webster University, has the best "collegiate" level team yet. 

Suffice to say - there is, er, COMPETITION among top-level collegiate chess programs these days to attract high-level players, er, chessplayers.  Who'd have thunk it!   Cut-throat, darlings, absolutely cut-throat!  Knives are out and high drama is afoot these days in the world of collegiate chess.  Who is backing who?  Where is the money coming from?  Just how much, exactly, are we talking about?  What are the ultimate goals, and who is scoring points on who?  Woo woo!  Like I said, high drama!  Those idiots in Washington have some lessons to learn from chess politicians, let me tell you...

The chess femmes will have a STRONG presence this year at Supernationals -- in addition to the above --

WGM Jennifer Shahade Seminar - Popularizing Chess ... Friday at 5 PM.
Parents Coffee with USCF President WIM Ruth Haring ... Saturday 3 PM.

In addition, one of my favorite players ever, GM Alexandria Kosteniuk, the 12th Women's World Chess Champion, who has a big kind heart and is so sweet and shy, will be giving a simul:

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk Simul Thursday 2 PM.
Cost: $50. Limited to first 40 players. Register Online (scroll down to Event 4 under Step 3). 

So, tune in and watch for the results.  Right now I'm hunting for Teams composition to see what IS 318 players will be playing, so I can root for the all!  Just not finding anything.  I'll keep looking and will update as we get into the actual tournament.

The Grindettes! Hate the Name, Love the Ladies!

Wonderful article from Poker News Daily:

Meet The Grindettes – Poker’s Newest Femmes Fatale
By Earl Burton - Sep 2nd, 2012

So far this year, the impact of women on the game of poker has been outstanding. Xuan Liu kicked the year off right for the ladies, becoming the first woman to ever make the final table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, then followed that up by driving deep at the World Series of Poker in Seven Card Stud on what was arguably one of the most difficult final tables of the schedule. Add in the bracelet victories by Vanessa Selbst and Allyn Jaffrey Shulman at the WSOP and it has been a good year to this point. But there is a group of ladies who have been united by a common thread that may have an impact yet this year and into the future as well.

Meet The Grindettes – poker’s latest femmes fatale!

This quartet of ladies – founder Katie Stone, Jennifer Shahade, Jamie Kerstetter and Katie Dozier – were brought together in 2011 with one thing in mind. The ladies love the game of poker and have the skills and abilities to make a living from the game. Identified by their red heart “Grindettes” patch, the ladies all had an impact on tournaments during the summer in Las Vegas and are continuing to branch out into other tournaments across the United States.

Stone switched from chess to poker back in 2004 and has been able to maintain success in both of these difficult endeavors. A successful online player who has earned over $200,000 in her career, Stone has been able to move over to the live game with similar results. Since 2009, she has racked up final table finishes around the world that included this year’s WSOP, where she finished in 37th place in the $1500 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em event.

Perhaps Stone has had her biggest impact outside of the poker world, on the lives of children. Prior to her involvement in poker, Stone co-founded the largest summer chess camp organizations in the U. S. Through her creation, USA Chess reaches children in more than 100 American cities and she continues to bring the intricate mind game to children to this day.

Like her fellow Grindette, Shahade also has a chess background in her history. A two-time American Women’s Chess Champion and a grandmaster of the game, Shahade has used her experience in the mental game of chess and transferred that style to her poker game. In 2012, she has made two final tables, one in a European Poker Tour side event and the other in Las Vegas, and has racked up nine cashes through her career, including two WSOP events.

Shahade is a prolific writer about both chess and poker. She has penned two books on chess, Chess Bitch and is the co-author of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess, and also continues her position as a board member of the World Chess Hall of Fame.

Kerstetter has a decorated live and online poker career that dates back to 2002. While earning over $275,000 through online poker, she has also earned forty cashes in live events across the United States. She qualified for the 2012 WSOP National Championship through her performance on the WSOP Circuit events and, although she didn’t cash in that event, it led to a big summer on the tournament poker stage.

This summer at the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza, Kerstetter earned her biggest cash of her career in winning the $600 Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. She also cashed in the 2012 WSOP Ladies World Championship and was among those who cashed in the 2011 WSOP Championship Event (Kerstetter came up just short of that goal in this year’s tournament). In 2012, she has been a terror, earning ten cashes overall.

While she might currently be better known for her literary work, Dozier has been making an impact on the felt as well. A poker player since 2004, Dozier edited her husband Collin Moshman’s books and has written two of her own, Pro Poker Strategy: The Top Skills and the novel The Superuser. In between parsing sentences and creating these tomes, Dozier has been able to build a respectable poker career.

After making over $110,000 online, Dozier took the step to head to the live tables for action and hasn’t disappointed. Her first cash was in a WSOP event in 2011 and, this year, she has five more cashes to her credit. A third place finish in one of the Venetian Deep Stack events led her to two more WSOP cashes, including a 451st place finish in the WSOP Championship Event.

According to the Global Poker Index’s Women’s Player of the Year race, Kerstetter and Dozier are among the Top 50 women in the game today, while Stone is just outside that group in the Top 100 women.

The four women who make up the Grindettes continue to ply their trade and have exhaustive schedules planned for the remainder of the year. Although some have moved to locales where they can continue to play online, Kerstetter and Shahade will be in action at the upcoming World Poker Tour stop at the Borgata in Atlantic City. Dozier will be in action during the next Venetian Deep Stack tournament series in October, while Stone continues to battle the live games and tournaments in Las Vegas with sights set on an out-of-country move later this year for online poker purposes.

The Grindettes continue to prove that today’s ladies of the game are formidable challenges, whether in cash games, tournaments or online, and will continue to be leading the cause of women in the world of poker. So if you see a lady come to the felt wearing a red heart logo, beware…the Grindettes are coming for you!

How NOT to Dress for a Chess Tournament

Talk about imposing rules where none are needed!  Well, what's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose.  Let's see what the ECU (European Chess Union) does about the male chessplayers who come to tournaments in filthy, wrinkled worn out stinky clothes with smuts in their nostrils that they constantly pick at, wax raining out of their ears and uncombed, uncut (and probably with cooties in their) hair -- not to mention a week's growth of beard.  Dirty chewed fingernails, too.  Eeeeeeuuuuwwwwww!

Hand out photo of Jennifer Shahade, author of "Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate
Intellectual Sport". Other player is Jason Bretz.

What's not to love about WGM Jen Shahade in a corset but damn, that has to be uncomfortable!  Photo should have kept her flame-shot deep red hair, blowing gently in a breeze...  The woman has a fabulous sense of the ironic :)  Catch up with JS at Facebook.

From USA Today:

Mar 09, 2012

Women players must button up during chess championships

By Reid Cherner

The European Women's Championship in chess is telling women players to dress for success not for an evening out.

ECU General Secretary Sava Stoisavljevic talked to Chessbase News about the new rules.

Décolletés are partly covered in our regulations, which state that in respect to shirts the second from the top button may also be opened, in addition to the very top button. But, nothing is written in our rules about the length of skirts or dresses. There are several special rules in some companies which put restrictions on the length of skirts and dresses – no shorter than 5-10 cm above the knees for example. I can see that there are many players here who wear very short skirts. It's nice to see chess players with short skirts – they are very pretty girls. But I believe there should still be some limit.

Here are some of the dress rules for women:

• ....blouses, turtleneck, T-shirts or polo's, trousers, jeans or slacks, skirts, dresses, and appropriate footwear (boots, flats, mid-heel or high-heel shoes, sneakers with sock) or any other appropriate clothing modification.
• a jacket, vest or sweater, a scarf, as well as jewelry (earrings, necklace, etc.) coordinated to the outfit may be worn.
• the pieces of the clothing should be crisp, show no excessive wear, no holes and shall be free of body odor.

Chessbase!  A bastion of testosterone peopled by thirteen year olds with pimples.  Oy!  To give them credit, Chessbase does report on women's events -- but usually including lots of photographs -- of the youngest, prettiest of the female players.  On occasion, Chessbase will run a feature story on a female player.  For instance, the day after International Women's Day (March 8th), there was an interview with perhaps the most famous female chessplayer in the world, GM Judit Polgar.  She is know to chessplayers, of course, but not to hardly anyone else who isn't "into" chess.  (Interview will be covered in a separate blog post).  Catch up with JP at Facebook. 

Here's the link to the Chessbase article about the "new" ECU women's dress code.  It's the same as the interview featured at the official website for the 2012 European Individual Women's Chess Championship. 

Chess Femme News! Checking In on the Chess Femme Blogs

A trip around the internet, visiting some of my favorite chess blogs by chess femmes!

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's chess blog:

October 4, 2011
Make a difference - you can contribute to Peace and Sport/Chess for Leadership and Creativity

October 4, 2011
GM Vassily Ivanchuk and his wife robbed at gun-point in Sao Paolo, just as they going to the airport to go to Bilbao, Spain, to finish the second half of the Grand Slam.  Mrs. Ivanchuk's passport was in one of the stolen suitcases.  Fortunately, neither GM nor Mrs. Ivanchuk were injured although, of course, both were quite shaken up by this horrible incident, just 20 yards from the hotel they had stayed in, in a "safe" area of Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Well, nowhere is safe, these days, is it? 

I can't help it - the first question that came to my mind was - who put those thieves up to this?  That GM Ivanchuk suffers from "nerves" is well-known for years.  Something like this could send him over the edge in the second half of the Grand Slam, and his wife has to travel back to their home country in order to get a new passport.  No one could possibly seriously believe that anyone would be carrying money in a suitcase - not these days!  So - what really was the goal of these thieves?  Just saying...

October 1, 2011
Strategic chess puzzle for chess-y weekend.
Video:  Chess Puzzle:  Kosteniuk v. Shen Yang (2008 Beijing).  Excellent! 

GM Susan Polgar's chess blog:

October 4, 2011
Inaugural Lecture at World Chess Hall of Fame

Dr. George Dean and GM Susan
Polgar at World Chess Hall of Fame,
St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Dr. George Dean will give a lecture on his unparalleled collection of chess memorabilia.

“Chess Masterpieces: One Thousand Years of Extraordinary Chess Sets,” will explore the history and significance of Dr. Dean’s extensive collection.

For more than 50 years, Dr. Dean and his wife Vivian have traveled the world acquiring rare, beautiful and culturally significant chess sets, including those currently on view in the World Chess Hall of Fame’s second floor exhibition, Chess Masterpieces: Highlights from the Dr. George and Vivian Dean Collection.
October 3, 2011
Zambinian Teenager Shines at Botswana Invitational Ladies Section
Zambian chess whiz kid, 18-year-old Epah Tembo has won the Botswana International Invitation Ladies Section in style, after emerging unscathed after nine rounds, and sweeping aside a strong field of Botswana national team players.

October 2, 2011
Chess' Greatest Challenge: Girls
In the world of chess, boys are always in, but U.S. Chess Federation numbers confirm girls are out the minute they hit the teens.

IM Jen Shahade's blog (hint: she keeps her Facebook more current):

September 17, 2011
Autumn Means Running
Autumn invigorates me to a comical extent. I actually find myself spontaneously running in heels from place to place during this season. The energy was useful last week as I just got back from the opening of the fabulous new World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis. I also hosted commentary for a special team event in honor of the opening, K v Q: A Battle of the Sexes.

WGM Natalia Pogonina's chess blog:

October 4, 2011
Avoiding Fatigue During Tournaments
We often hear or say ourselves that “I got tired, and my brain went dead”; “I was tired and blundered”, “I didn’t have enough energy left for the last few rounds”.

Liz Vicary's Blog:
No kidding, Liz Vicary is one of my favorite people.  She's so damn passionate and erudite, and she loves the kids she teaches 2000 percent!  She's also incredibly witty.

October 3, 2011
IS 218 Fund Raising Drive - Please Help! (Of course I will, and I hope YOU will too, readers.  Please please please, every dollar will help, and I know it will be used efficiently, not going to overhead and bureaucracy nonsense.)
Please help support IS 318's chess team. Our funding has been cut every year for several years now, and it's at the point that we have tomake really fundamental cuts. We won't be able to take many students to Nationals or go to many of the tournaments we regularly win/do well in (the Marshall, the NY State Championship, Girls Nationals, High School Nationals, Elementary Nationals).

87% of our students live below the poverty line, which is currrently $22,000 for a family of four. That's even harder to live on in New York City than in the rest of the country. The money you donate will give these kids enriching educational experiences they would not otherwise be able to afford. Because we bring so many kids to tournament and I work on salary, your donated dollar is spent extremely efficiently and goes really far.

A Lovely Blog by WGM Jennifer Shahade from Madrid

Madrid, Spain - first week in January, 2012. That's our Goddesschess destination!

I saved this url several days ago.  I'm sorry for not posting it earlier, I've been busy with other things, darlings!  Tonight is lovely - not quite as hot and humid as predicted.  The house is still wide open and, unlike earlier in the week (Tuesday) when it was 90 degrees F inside when I'd got home from work and I turned on the central air conditioning to cool the place down, tonight it was cool inside (I'd shut down all the windows before I left at 7:25 a.m. this morning).  I spent a good hour or more on the deck feeding nuts to the squirrels and chipmunks while sipping a long, cool glass of wine. 



Photo at pokerpages.com

 Here is Jen Shahade who, amongst other things, plays poker to earn some daily bread - a lot of bread, so I gather :)  Blogging from Madrid in mid-May, 2011 ... My notoriety in the world of chess also spread quickly, and several poker players approached me to ask which game I prefer. I arrived from Madrid directly after providing live commentary from the US Chess Championships in Saint Louis...
From pokerstarsblog.com
by Jennifer Shahade on May 31, 2011 7:34 AM

Seat draws are the curse or blessing of a traveler. My trip to Madrid began on an ominous note. On my flight from Philadelphia, I was seated next to a toucher. This man had a habit of telling me a bad joke and then accidentally brushing my leg or arm with the punch line. I couldn't sleep the entire trip. Still, soon after landing in Madrid, I immediately took to exploring the compact, energetic city.

After taking in some great art, including Picasso's Guernica at the Reina Sofia, I sat in an outdoor cafe to enjoy some anchovies, chocolate and churros (not all at once). A couple of ladies asked to sit next to me as there were no other outdoor tables open. I was scribbling in my notebook and not in the mood for company--I silently grimaced, but of course agreed. After some innocent conversation, I discovered that one of the women was the president of an art foundation, filled with the work of an artist whose sculptures were also puzzles. She was also the daughter of an alleged Portuguese princess. I couldn't have invented a more fascinating lunch mate if I tried. Poker players take note: allow some time before you judge your table draw.

Rest of article...

Check out Jen Shahade's website for an interesting weave of chess, poker, and the game of life. 

Two-Time U.S. Women's Champion Jen Shahade Upcoming Simul/Lecture

To promote her new book "Play Like a Girl!Tactics by 9 Queens," all proceeds of sale which will go to fund 9 Queens.  9 Queens believes in the empowerment of the individual through learning to play chess and all that it teaches -- it reaches out especially to children and women of all ages.

Excerpted from the Examiner.com - San Francisco

U.S. champion Shahade visiting San Francisco for chess exhibition and signing





Jennifer Shahade, from Mechanics
Institute website


• March 23rd, 2011 7:30 pm PT

Jennifer Shahade, a two-time U.S. women's chess champion, appears March 29 at the Mechanics Institute Chess Club. Shahade will give a talk, and sign her new book Play Like a Girl! Tactics by 9 Queens.

Play Like a Girl! is an anthology of combinations played by female masters, going back to the first women's world champions Menchik and Rudenko, and including the current and youngest champion Hou Yifan.

The royalties from Play Like a Girl! will go to the non-profit organization 9 Queens. According to its website, 9 Queens is dedicated to extending the benefits of chess to those who need it most, especially girls at at-risk youth.

After her evening at Mechanics on March 29, Shahade will perform a simultaneous exhibition at the NorCal House of Chess on April 3. Then she'll head to Arizona for the Tucson Chess Fest, a 9 Queens event. "A mini West Coast book tour!" she said.

New Jen Shahade Book: Play Like a Girl: Tactics by 9Queens

From Jen Shahade (two-time winner of the U.S. Women's Chess Championship):

My latest book, Play Like a Girl!: Tactics by 9Queens  was just released from Mongoose Press. The book is filled with chess puzzles and combinations, all executed by female chess champions. A perfect prequel to my first book, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport, I hope Play Like a Girl! will motivate girls and women to enter the male-dominated chess field. The book is available at 9queens.org, amazon, Mongoosepress or USCF Sales. All author royalties go to 9 Queens initiatives to bring chess to those most in need of its benefits.

 Daniel Meirom and I created the book trailer below, Lipstick Checkmate. It features me and Abby Marshall, the first woman to win the Denker tournament of high school champions, playing on a chess set, composed of items from long forgotten make-up bags, luxury brand promotions and drugstore bargain bins. If you like it, pass it along or tweet/facebook it! Also see some production stills on jennifershahade.com. 

Finally, if you would like to report on or write about Play Like a Girl, contact me for more information, the official press release or a review copy.

Thanks for all your support and have a great weekend, Jennifer 

--
Jennifer Shahade
uschess.org/clo
jennifershahade.com
9queens.org
twitter.com/jenshahade

9 Queens

Reported at Chess Life Online and Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog: Kosteniuk Spreads Holiday Cheer in Tucson December 22, 2009 Move over Santa! Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk spread holiday cheer for 9 Queens students in Tucson, Arizona with her goodwill simultaneous exhibition on December 20. (Image: Three of the young participants in the Kosteniuk simul, by Jeff Smith). What a wonderful thing for GM Kosteniuk to do, and what a boost for the good work 9 Queens is doing. As Jean Hoffman, co-founder and Executive Director of 9 Queens noted in her email letter today to friends and donors, [s]ince 2007, 9 Queens has grown from a single after-school chess club in Tucson, Arizona into a national nonprofit organization serving thousands of at-risk children and women annually.The success of 9 Queens speaks not only to the strength of our organization but also to the need for our programs. From Parkersburg, West Virginia to Brooklyn, New York principals, teachers, and parents from throughout the country have contacted 9 Queens in need of our support. Currently there are over 25 schools, libraries and after-school centers on the 9 Queens waiting list. Here is an article about the work 9 Queens is doing in Tucson, as reported on December 24th in The New York Times: In Tucson, Women and Girls Are Finding a Place at the Chessboard By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN Published: December 24, 2009 Becca Kinsey, a 39-year-old stage manager in Tucson, has three children, a husband and very little free time. But nearly every Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to noon, she goes to the Coffee X Change at Grant Road and Campbell Avenue to meet a group of women and play chess. “I never had an interest,” Mrs. Kinsey said of the game. “It always gave me headaches.” That changed a few months ago, when she finally learned to play. Now, she said, “people will say, ‘Come do this,’ and I’ll say: ‘I can’t go to that. I am going to chess on Wednesdays.’ ” Mrs. Kinsey’s chess group has 16 members, all of them women and most of them beginners. They all share an enthusiasm for chess that borders on obsession. The group is an outgrowth of a nonprofit organization in Tucson called 9 Queens, started in 2007 by Jean Hoffman, 29, and Jennifer Shahade, 28, a two-time United States women’s chess champion. The group’s name comes from the maximum number of queens that one player can have on the board. (While theoretically possible, it has never been known to happen.) Ms. Hoffman, who lives in Tucson, said the goal of 9 Queens was to encourage more girls and women, as well as students from low-income families, to take up chess. Girls make up a small fraction of the children who play in chess tournaments, and women competitors are even rarer. Bill Hall, executive director of the United States Chess Federation, estimated that fewer than 5 percent of the federation’s members are women over 21. “My dad, my grandfather, my brother played,” Mrs. Kinsey said, “and it was something that the girls never did.” To help achieve its goal, 9 Queens began holding monthly workshops limited to girls and women to create a more nurturing environment. “In the chess clubs that I have that are coed, the boys will be screaming out the right answer, and they will be fighting,” Ms. Hoffman said. The instructors are, with one exception, also women. In her effort to publicize the workshops, Ms. Hoffman asked Margo Burwell, 60, a retired college art instructor, to design a poster. Ms. Burwell used a picture of Marcel Duchamp, the Dada artist who was a passionate chess player, and a quotation from him: “I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art — and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.” After she was done, Ms. Burwell, whose son played chess but who did not play herself, decided to go to a workshop. “It was good enough for Marcel, so perhaps it was good for me,” she said. At the first workshop Ms. Burwell attended, girls and women were taught the rules and then paired up to play. Ms. Burwell found herself opposite a 5-year-old girl. “At one point, she captured my queen, and she laughed and laughed, and I thought, ‘I better buckle down,’ ” Ms. Burwell said. After 45 minutes, she won. Ms. Burwell found that playing every month was not enough. She asked some women if they would be interested in meeting once a week. The women have different reasons for joining. Mrs. Kinsey wanted to be able to play with her 8-year-old daughter, Angela, who competes in chess tournaments. “I wanted to learn myself so I can be more of a support system for her,” she said. “I wanted to actually be able to play a game with her and actually be competitive.” Mrs. Kinsey said the Wednesday group had not just helped her improve her game. “I really like the ladies,” she said. “Some of the ladies have kids that play tournaments, and we’ll talk about how hard do you push them. It’s sort of like a support group.” Martha Underwood, 47, an assistant professor of education at the University of Arizona, said that even her children, Aiya, 11, and Zack, 9, who compete in scholastic chess tournaments, are startled by their mother’s newfound zeal for the game. “They are kind of annoyed with me because they are like, ‘That is all you do,’ ” Ms. Underwood said. She said that she and the rest of the group hoped that playing chess would have benefits. “We all talk about how we want to do this to stave off Alzheimer’s, instead of The New York Times crossword puzzle,” she said. While the women are collegial, they are also competitive. Ms. Underwood has played in two tournaments, including one run by 9 Queens. Ann Price, an architect newly laid off from her firm, said she had been a black belt in tae kwon do, but had to give it up after injuring her back five years ago. Chess, she said, was a good substitute. “One of the things that I missed about tae kwon do was the strategic way of thinking,” Ms. Price said. “The problem-solving is something that I did in my profession.” Sometimes, men at the Coffee X Change ask to play chess with the women and are welcomed. But there are no plans to make them a formal part of the group. Some members of the group say that learning chess with women who have become friends has given them a confidence that seems to spill over into the rest of their lives. “I tend to be talkative,” Ms. Underwood said. “I’m trying to be more thoughtful instead.”

Not Just for 'Nerds'

Story from The Pendulum Elon University's Studen Newspaper September 9, 2009 Chess club encourages community involvement, female participation by Sarah Costello, September 8, 2009 Brows glisten and fingers twitch during the final stages of a long battle between two passionate competitors. Tension is evident as the board quickly becomes vacant of pieces. Eyes widen and collected breaths are released with the subtle tap of a fallen king. Checkmate. Intense competition between Elon chess players can be expected every week at Chess Club meetings, when players of all ages, backgrounds and levels of ability challenge and learn from one another. "Our club is kind of unique because we have total community involvement," said Aaron Peeks, associate professor of sociology and the adviser of the Elon Chess Club. Students, faculty, staff and even children attend the Tuesday evening meetings for instruction, as well as friendly competition. "Chess is about puzzles," Peeks said. "If you love puzzles, you'll love chess."Peeks has played chess since high school and temporarily sacrificed his undergraduate studies to compete in national tournaments his freshman year. He said he loves the beauty of the game and the ability to relate chess to life. "Chess keeps my brain sharp," Peeks said. "Chess provided me with a level of self-control. It's made me a better planner." One of Peeks's goals as the faculty adviser is to shatter existing stereotypes that often accompany chess. "Chess is (often) seen as a nerdy game for geeks," he said. He advocates that chess is not solely for individuals with high IQs, impressive GPAs or a collection of pocket pens. Peeks also wants to interest more women in the game. With female representation at less than 10 percent in national tournaments, Peeks said he believes it is important to encourage women to play a game often perceived as explicitly masculine. "There's a more feminine side to chess," Peeks said. "There's artistic beauty and motion, but a lot of females think they can't grasp it." Jennifer Shahade, a two-time American Women Chess Champion and the author of "Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport," is attempting to combat misconceptions by empowering women and girls through the art of chess. Shahade is the co-founder of 9 Queens, a nonprofit organization in Tuscon, Ariz., which provides chess instruction to girls and youth in the inner city. "It's important to teach chess to girls and women because chess improves confidence and rewards healthy aggression," Shahade said. "For cultural reasons, these are areas in which women often don't feel as comfortable as men. Chess is a medium where boys and girls can compete on an equal playing field." Peeks, a self-proclaimed feminist, said he believes women should have equal opportunity to participate in chess and would like to interest more women in the game. Peeks hopes to attract more male and female students by spreading the word through public tournaments and a "Beat the Professor Challenge" Sept. 22 at College Coffee. Students who can beat Peeks will receive a $10 gift certificate. "Come to chess club," Peeks said. "It's uncanny how chess can improve academic skills. Research shows kids who play chess have higher GPAs."

2009 U.S. Open Chess Championship

I received the July, 2009 edition of Chess Life Magazine in the mail today. The lovely Jen Shahade (a former U.S. Women's Chess Champion and current editor of the USCF's Chesslife Online) is on the front cover. I think women should always be on the cover of Chess Life Magazine. (Photo of Jen Shahade from her website). Curiously, I noticed for the first time in the lower right hand corner that the magazine sells "on the stand" for $3.95. Where? I've never seen it offered for sale anywhere - and I am a frequent habitutee of Borders and Barnes & Noble... Anyway, I must not allow myself to get distracted, darlings! I have a complaint about the "TLA" pages in Chess Life Magazine. The print is smaller than ant poop! Well, at least I assume it is, because I've never seen ant poop, but you can be sure it's very tiny, as ants are tiny creatures! But even with my magnifying glasses on, I cannot read most of the TLA announcements in Chess Life! Geez, guys, considering that a lot of old fogeys like me read Chess Life Magazine (rather than visiting the online version of Chess Life, which I generally don't have time to do when I'm online because I'm doing so many other things online, like playing chess -), can't you do us all a favor and make the frigging print a little bigger? Please? The BIG news about this event, as far as I'm concerned, is that GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (now residing in Florida with her nuclear family), will be playing in the event! But since there is no official website for the event, one has no idea just what players have signed up to participate thus far! For such a PRESTIGIOUS EVENT (Jerry Hanken's words in an article in this month's Chess Life Magazine) shouldn't it have it's own dedicated website? I don't disagree that this is a great event. It should be treated accordingly! Maybe a dedicated website is in the cards down the line - I sure hope so. And if it is, I sure hope the USCF makes it easy to find! A Google search under 2009 U.S. Open Chess Championship did not yield any dedicated website on the first page of search results, but did yield a lot of unrelated stuff. I was able to FINALLY decipher the url for the website for this event, ta da! Here's some of the poop, er, scoop: 110th United States Open Chess Championship A Heritage Event August 1-9, 2009 August 4-9, 2009 August 6-9, 2009 Indianapolis, Indiana Prize Fund $50,000 based on 500 paid entries - else proportional - $40,000 Guaranteed!! [80% of each prize]. Top five players qualify for the 2010 US Championship! A one section tournament with Class prizes. All schedules merge after Round 6. Prizes[Projected] Top Places: $8000-4000-2000-1500-1000-800-600-500. Clear winner - $200 bonus. If tie for first, top two on tiebreak play speed game [W - 5 min, B - 3 min and draw odds] for bonus and title. Class Prizes: Top Master (2200-2399): $2500-1200-800-500. Top Expert: $2500-1200-800-500. Class A: $2500-1200-800-500. Class B: $2500-1200-800-500. Class C: $2000-1000-600-400. Class D: $1500-700-500-300. Class E & Below: $1500-700-500-300. Unrated: $800-400-200. Half Point Byes: Must commit before round 4; up to 3 byes allowed for 2000/up2 byes for 1400-1999, one bye for Under 1400/Unr Zero point byes are always available in any round if requested at least two hours before the start of the desired round! Entry Fee: Online, $135 by 5/15, $155 by 7/29 By mail, $137 postmarked by 5/15, $160 postmarked by 7/23 By phone, $140 by 5/15, $160 by 7/29 At site, all $180 GMs are free

IM/WGM Rusudan Goletiani - USA

In case you haven't heard the news by now, at the Dresden Chess Olympiad (November, 2008) the USA Women's Chess Team won a Team Bronze Medal. Adding icing to the beautiful cake, an individual Gold Medal was won by Anna Zatonskih (current U.S. Women's Chess Champion) and an individual Silver Medal by Rusudan Goletiani for their respective board performances. Hooray for USA! (BTW, the USA Men's Chess Team also won a Team Bronze Medal.) This was the second Women's Team Medal EVER won by a U.S. team. GM Susan Polgar led the way for the U.S. Women's Team at the 2004 Chess Olympiad to win the FIRST EVER Team Silver Medal, and GM Polgar earned yet another individual Gold Medal for her performance at that Olympiad. In 2006 the U.S. Women's Team had to settle for 4th place overall, losing a Team Medal by a hair. The U.S. Women's Team came back with a vengence this year! You can read all about it at Chess Femme News. The USCF's print magazine, Chess Life, for February 2009 features Goletiani on the cover, as part of a feature story at its website (you must be a member to access). Now, Jennifer Shahade, one of the ground-breaking chess femmes on that 2004 U.S. Women's Chess Olympiad Team, has a sit-down interview with Goletiani also online at the USCF website that everyone can read (no membership required). Please check out both articles, and learn more about women chessplayers in the United States.

9 Queens

I found out about this fledgling organization just today at Elizabeth Vicary's blog. Any organization that supports getting more girls (particulary girls who would not otherwise be exposed to the game of chess in the normal course of their lives) is A-ONE with me. Jennifer Shahade is one of the principals of this organization. I hope 9 Queens is very successful and spreads into all 50 states! 9 Queens website. Make a contribution to 9 Queens. Lizzy Knows All blog - guys, she made it known that she recently broke up with her chess dude boyfriend...

Chess Life Magazine January, 2009

Hola darlings! Damn, it is COLD outside. I was pelted smack in the kisser with sleety iceballs all the way home from the bus stop - 3/4th of a mile of sheer hell that would test the mettle of the most stalwart. Ach, I'm sounding like Hemingway - better stop now! The January 2009 issue of Chess Life magazine from USCF arrived in the mail today and there is one hot cover photo of a suited-up Gregory Kaidanov, he is just smoking in that photo! Well done to whomever took that photo, it's a great shot. The shot on the lead pages of the article (267-27) was nice too, but done in black and white. There was an equally fine shot of Jen Shahade on page 37 in the Hip Hop Variation article (about RZA's efforts to promote chess), also in black and white. Mostly I skip through Chess Life, because I do not play through any of the games or read any of the analysis, not being a "serious" chessplayer but a hopeless case -- my interest in chess stems from admiration for the people who actually play the game for something other than occasional amusement! I stop at photos that I find admirable and will read through an article occasionally if it about the ancient origins of the game, about a female or females playing chess or one of my favorite players. Now, I did not read this article, on the 2008 Women's World Championship by GM Pal Benko, but I will spend some time looking it over later because I admired his honesty in writing this - his lead-in says: As a conflict took place between Russian and Georgian troops, the women's world championship lost competitors to the political fallout. One consequence is the imprecision of many of the championship level end-games. I look forward to going over his insights in this article. I noticed last month - and again this month - in large ads, the 2009 National Open is not going to be held at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas in June! Why the hell not? What is, exactly, the "South Point Hotel" - the new venue? Off strip and out of the way and inconvenient! Ach! I think this is a big mistake, but hopefully the rooms will be LOTS cheaper for the patzer players who fork over their entry fees to pay for the prizes won by the big guns, and everyone will be happy - and, come to think of it - maybe some of those overweight dudes will walk off some of their bellies trekking to and from the South Point to the Strip, where all the action still, truly, is!

The Kings of New York

From Michael Weinreb's The Kings of New York, this is from the chapter "The Women in the Room." (The photo is 2003 U.S. Women's Chess Champion Anna Hahn, from an event in March, 2002.)

Anna Khan was sixteen years old and the reigning women's chess champion of Latvia when she enrolled at Murrow High School, the latest pubescent prodigy to arrive in Brooklyn from a distant corner of the crumbling Soviet empire. This was in 1993, ten years after Eliot Weiss founded the school's chess club and a few months after it won its first national championship. And for reasons entirely beyond Weiss's control, Anna Khan was the first female ever to compete on his traveling team.

Anna Khan would lead Murrow to two more national championships, in 1993 and 1994. Eventually, after changing her name to Anna Hahn, she won the U.S. Women's Championship in 2003 and earned the title of WIM, which is the abbreviation used for a "Women's International Master," a less stringent title than "International Master," and one that many of the best male players in the world deride as a second-class designation. On a Web site that archives past games from top players, the comments under Hahn's entry and photograph are a catalog of puerilities ("Anna Hahn can mate me any day. Growl.") But then, this is the way it has always been. Since the inception of competitive chess, the upper eschelons of the game have reeked of sexism, and women who dare intrude upon this sanctity are often treated with as much subtlety as if they'd wandered into the back room at Scores. "Guys aren't going to stand around and watch a guy's game because he's a guy," Bruce Pandolfini says. "Maybe if he's Bobby Fischer, but not for any other reason. But that's not why they stand around women. And if they say it's for any other reason, they're lying."

Forty-five years earlier, when a U.S. women's champion named Lisa Lane drew a sudden barrage of media attention (she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and was profiled in Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine, which described her as "comely" and "shapely"), Fischer, an equal-opportunity bigot, dismissed her and her entire sex with a barrage of insults. "They can't concentrate, they don't have stamina, and they aren't creative," he said of female chess players. "They're all fish." And that attitude didn't cease with Fischer: in 2002, Garry Kasparov told the Times of London that "chess is a mixture of sport, psychological warfare, science, and art," and that "when you look at all these components, man dominates. Every single component of chess belongs to the areas of male domination."

Of the top players in the world, only one, Hungarian Judit Polgar, is female, and fewer than ten of the world's 950 international grandmasters are women. [This information is somewhat dated.] Some efforts are being made to alter this: in recent years, Kasparov's own foundation has sponsored an all-girls national championship. But there remains a consensus among many of the best male players that this imbalance exists for a reason, that women are not wired for chess in the same way as men, that they they are, by nature and through societal pressure, more social creatures, and that they would prefer to interact with others than be locked in a room by themselves, poring over esoteric middle-game theory. Which is why most of these girls, when they reach the age of twelve or thirteen, an age that Bruce Pandolfini calls "crucial" to one's development as a chess player, simply fade away. Which is why approximately ninety-seven percent of competitive chess players in the United States happen to be male.

Of the thirty-five participants in the high-school varsity section at the city championships, two were girls. One of them was Anna Ginzburg, who came up through the Chess-in-the Schools program and landed one of those coveted spots at Stuyvesant High School. Ginzburg wears wire-rimmed glasses and has a tangle of thick brown hair and a penchant for feminine accessories, like her "Mrs. Affleck" tote bag. On the back of her Chronos digital clock, she's written her name in permanent marker, dotting the I with a flower and underlining the whole thing with a feminine flourish. when she was younger, she was painfully shy, but now she's gotten used to it, to being out-numbered and overlooked. At times, she is able to assimilate into this boys' world, beating them at cards and surprising them over the board and returning their banter when necessary. (Anna's rating is 1656, about the same as Oscar's whom she defeated at cities after an overconfident Oscar hung a rook). But the worst part, she says, is that when she travels to tournaments, she has so few people with whom she can share a hotel room. In that sense, she is very much on her own.

Because there is such disparity in numbers, the women who break through to competitive chess, the women who can manage to thrive amid a sea of testosterone, tend to be unique and forceful personalities. Some, like Elizabeth Vicary, admit that they thrive on the attention (one Russian women's GM, Alexandra Kosteniuk, has posed for so many risque photo shoots that she's been called "the Anna Kournikova of chess"). [Actually, Kosteniuk is a GM who just happens to be a woman]. Many say they've never felt discriminated against, and that if anything, it's just the opposite: men are so deferential, so cowed by their presence, that their brains often seize up and start melting when they play. Adults turn into randy adolescents. They make silly moves they would never make against other men, and when they are called on these things, they attribute their carelessness to the sex of their opponent: Against a man, I would never make such a move. "In most games, I am thinking about girls for fifty to seventy-five percent of the time, another fifteen percent goes to time management, and with what's left over I am calculating," grandmaster Alex Shabalov once admitted to Jennifer Shahade, the strongest female player ever to be born in this country.

* * * * * * *

I'll bet Shabalov never figured those words would be immortalized in such a way. Har! Oooohhhh, Alex, Mr. Ladies' Man.

Jennifer Shahade to Give Talk

Chess Icon Jennifer Shahade to Lecture on Women in Chess - October 19, 2007 Two-time U.S. women's chess champion and author of "Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport," Jennifer Shahade will give a lecture titled "Leveling the Chessboard: Women in Competitive Chess" on Sunday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. The event, which will be held at Griffin Hall, room 3, on the Williams College campus, is free and open to the public. Following the lecture, Shahade will play 20 simultaneous chess games in Griffin 4. Participants who give her the most challenge will receive signed copies of her book. Those interested in signing up should contact Trevor Murphy at tmurphy@williams.edu. Shahade, a Woman Grand Master who has an FIDE rating of 2322, is considered by some to be the strongest female player ever born and raised in the U.S. In 1998, she became the first female to win the U.S. Junior Open. She then proceeded to win the U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 2002 and 2004. Shahade's 2005 book, "Chess Bitch," is a controversial but critically acclaimed investigation of young women in chess today. The book profiles international chess players and explores trends and biases in the game. This Brooklyn-based chess expert is also the web editor in chief for the United States Chess Federation. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications. In 2005, the New York Times carried an op-ed by Shahade, in which she suggests that chess in the U.S. can and should be popularized in a manner similar to the mainstream presentation of poker, a game she also plays competitively. Shahade who holds a B.A. in comparative literature from NYU teaches chess and is involved in performance art.

Blast from the Past - Shahade 2006 Interview

GAMES
March 12, 2006
The queen speaks!

Provocative U.S. women's chess champion Jennifer Shahade on why the thinking person's game isn't just for geeks -- or guys.
By Gary M. Stern

On the cover of her book last year about women in chess, top-ranked competitor Jennifer Shahade wears a strappy pink tank top, a pink wig and a come-hither look. Make no mistake: At 25, the New York City resident is a two-time national women's champion. Although men may get more attention, Shahade wants to encourage greater respect for and involvement by women. Next up: Her students will compete in the All-Girls National Chess Championship, for ages 5 to 18, March 18 and 19 in Chicago. We spoke to her:

Can you make a living at chess?

There isn't enough money from winning. You earn $12,500 from winning the U.S. Women's Championship.

Only 7.5% of competitive chess players are female. Why?

Role models. ... Since there are so few girls involved, it can be alienating.
Why choose chess? Chess can boost a woman's confidence in her intellectual endeavors and raise her self-esteem. You also can gain a Zen type of concentration.

What does chess teach you about life?

You have to submit to failure and keep going. I lost many times before I won the women's championship, and sometimes it was difficult to pick up the pieces and play again.

To earn extra money, you play many exhibitions. How do those work?

I've played up to 45 people at a time in "simuls," as in simultaneous. They're not as difficult for the professional, because chess is more a game of skill than of thinking. A great player sees the correct move instantaneously. It's about experience and intuition.

Any pre-game rituals?

I usually go for a 30-minute walk to clear my head. Chess is physically grueling. Many chess players lose 10 pounds during a tournament.

When did you start playing chess?

I knew the rules at 6, played a tournament around 9, but didn't get serious until 13. My dad is a chess master, so once I started to show motivation, he took me to tournaments.

What has been a major change in chess?

Chess players use computers to prepare for the game. The computers tell us where we went wrong and help us prepare defenses.

What's your favorite piece?

The queen!

Why are we not surprised?

The queen is the most powerful piece.

What do you see in the game's future?

We're going to see chess on TV. TV will help popularize it, like poker.

Best thing about chess?

Its fairness. It has nothing to do with what somebody else thinks about you or how much money you have. It's based on what you bring to the board.

Typical Research Project

Before I run to the supermarket and then cut the grass (it's overdue for a trim), I thought I'd share a bit about one of my current "research projects." I've just finished reading Cathy Forbes' 1992 book "The Polgar Sisters - Training or Genius?" (I highly recommend it - I believe she was unfairly vilified for writing this book, and I find that many of her insights into the Polgar sisters have proven to be true) and later this afternoon I'll settle down on the deck, a tall ice-filled glass of cheap vino at hand under the shade of a 7 foot umbrella (it's supposed to get up to 80 and I don't want to get sunburnt) and start reading Susan Polgar's latest book "Breaking Through," which will, presumably, cover much of the same territory that Forbes covered in her 1992 book. Of course, though, from an entirely different perspective. After that, "Chess Bitch" by IM Jennifer Shahade is on the list. The object of this burst of reading about female chessplayers is to fill in background information for two articles I'm working on for Goddesschess - one inspired by David Shenk's latest research project into whether geniuses are born or created - well, that's not an exact description of what he's working on, that's my paraphrase of how I understand his research at the present time. Shenk wrote a book last year that I'm also reading (in between all the other reading projects I'm juggling) - "The Immortal Game - A History of Chess" and I think he did an excellent job of capturing the mystique and allure of chess. Oh yes - he also provided a ton of fascinating information about the game I love - and hate. Chess is a black hole that sucks you in - whether as a player or as an historian, which, I guess, is my avocation - chess historian. But not your average historian, because for the most part I could care less about who played who with what opening when; nope, I and my cohorts in chess history apostacy are interested in the really ancient stuff, the stuff that lead to the invention of such games as senet, twenty squares (the Royal Game of Ur), mehen, backgammon, chess, liubo, xiang qi, etc. And I've gotten totally off subject, lol! Once my research is done, one article will be about sexual discrimination in chess; the second article will be an examination of Shenk's intriguing research, but only in connection with chessplayers (i.e., are they "born" or "made?") I hope to have them both written soon; I've got bits and pieces saved on the computer already, but it's always a struggle to pull everything together and try to make a cohesive, understandable whole. I enjoy writing; I consider myself rather good at it (ahem). Still, it's MUCH easier to just continue to do research - one then never has to commit anything into final form for death by a thousand pinpricks and slurs of the critics...