Jennifer Shahade grew up in a family of gamers. Her brother is IM Greg Shahade is founder of the PRO Chess League and the US Chess School, while her mother, Dr. Sally Solomon (1940-2013), was an avid bridge and poker player. Her father, FM Michael Shahade is a four-time state champion and taught her chess at five. Jennifer did not take to the game right away, gravitating instead to acting and writing. When she got back into it in high school, she fell in love and quickly improved, becoming a National Master at the age of 16, and the first female to win the US Junior Open. She went on to win two US Chess Women’s Championship titles and a Silver Olympic medal.
Jennifer’s joint passion for games and art led to dozens of creative projects through her career, including authoring Chess Queens, which chronicles the true stories of the top women players in history, intertwined with Jennifer’s own life. She’s also the host of two award-winning podcasts, the GRID and Ladies Knight. The show is a game within a game, as Jen fills out the entire 169 grid of possible poker hands, with no repeats.
Jennifer is the MindSports Ambassador at PokerStars and loves to show how games like poker and chess can help anyone make better decisions. Her titles include a Championship belt at the Open Face High Roller Championship in Prague. Jennifer fights to make games more inclusive through her work with US Chess Women, where she helps bring chess to girls, gender minorities and women. She’s also an ambassador for Poker Power, an organization that aims to “flip the table” and teach one million women poker.
Jennifer and her husband, film-maker Daniel Meirom, create art around their passion for games. Many of their works explore gender dynamics of chess and poker including, Hula Chess, Not Particularly Beautiful, Goldilocks, Breast Milk vs. Formula, and Naked Chess. Their work has been featured in the Boston Sculptors Gallery, Contemporary Museum in Saint Louis, the Dali Museum, and the Francis Naumann Art Gallery. Jennifer is a board member at the World Chess Hall of Fame, a chess museum that celebrates the history and art of the game.
