Bio
Jennifer Shahade is a Philadelphia based writer and gamesplayer. She is a two-time American Women’s Chess Champion (2002, 2004). Her first book, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport intertwined her own story with that of great women chess champions past and present. She is also a semi-professional poker player, and placed 17th out of more than 1200 players in the 2007 Ladies World Series of Poker event.
Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New In Chess, the L.A. Times, Games Magazine and Chess Life Magazine, for which Jennifer is the web-editor. Jennifer is currently working on her second book, a novel.
In 2007, Jennifer Shahade and Jean Hoffman founded 9queens, a non-profit that provides chess instruction to those most in need of its benefits, especially girls and at-risk youth. Throughout her career, Jennifer has made a point of focusing her coaching efforts on girls and the inner-city, starting with her five-years of coaching work with Chess-In-The-Schools in New York. Her work with CIS included starting a Girls’ Academy and three years of training with the Championship Junior High School team, I.S. 318.
Jennifer performs simultaneous exhibitions in which she plays up to 50 people at once, in locations as various as Shanghai, China, Soweto, South Africa and a Girls’ Scout Convention in Los Angeles. Jennifer has also participated and/or helped organize many events at art galleries and museums, including the Noguchi Museum in Queens, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Viewing Room Gallery in New York, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival and the Psycho-Geography Festival.
You can reach Jennifer at jenshahade@gmail.com.
