Jennifer Shahade


Jennifer Shahade is an American chess player, poker player, commentator and writer. She is a two-time United States Women's Champion and has the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster. Shahade is the author of the books Chess Bitch and Play Like a Girl and co-author of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess. She is also the online editor at uschess.org, MindSports Ambassador for PokerStars and a board member of the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis.

Early life

Shahade was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of FIDE Master Mike Shahade and Drexel University chemistry professor and author Sally Solomon. Her father is a Christian Lebanese and her mother is Jewish. Her older brother, Greg Shahade, is an International Master.

Career

In 1998, she won the U.S. Junior Open. In 2002, she won the U.S. Women's Chess Championship in Seattle, Washington. At the next U.S. Women's Championship she earned her second International Master norm. In 2004, she won the U.S. Women's Championship.
Shahade lives in Philadelphia and has earned a degree in comparative literature at New York University. Her writing has appeared in the LA Times, The New York Times, Chess Life, New In Chess, and Games Magazine. Her first book, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport was published in October 2005.
In 2006 Shahade was hired by the United States Chess Federation to be the web editor-in-chief of its site. Her brother Greg Shahade sat on the executive board of the USCF at that time.
In 2007 Shahade co-founded a chess non-profit called 9 Queens.
Shahade is also a poker player. In 2014, she became the MindSports Ambassador for PokerStars. On December 9, 2014, Shahade won the first TonyBet Open Face Chinese Poker Live World Championship High Roller Event taking home €100,000. She is also a coach for the training website Run It Once.

Works and publications