Jennifer Shahade author page

Jennifer Shahade biography

Jennifer Shahade is an American chess player, poker player, commentator and writer. She holds the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster.

She won the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship in 2002 and 2004, and in 1998 became the first woman to win the U.S. Junior Open.

Shahade earned a degree in comparative literature from New York University. Her written work includes the books Chess Bitch, Play Like a Girl and Chess Queens.

In 2007, she co-founded the non-profit organisation 9 Queens, which promotes chess education programmes for underserved and underrepresented youth. From 2018 until 2023, Shahade served as the Women’s Program Director at the United States Chess Federation.

Shahade also plays poker competitively and in 2014 became a MindSports Ambassador for PokerStars. Her podcast The GRID, co-produced with Daniel Meirom, won the Global Poker Award for Podcast of the Year in 2019.

Chess Queens is among her published books on chess and gender in the game.