Jennifer is a speaker, commentator and host.  She has given talks all over the World, including a TedX talk in Baltimore and lectures and talks at MIT, Yale, Harvard and NYU. She has spoken to the Boston Consulting Group and Merrill Lynch about how to make better decisions, and to the Philadelphia Art Museum, Dali Museum, and Oakland Museum of Contemporary Art about overlap between games, culture and art.   Direct speaking inquiries to Jennifer Shahade at jenshahade at gmail dot com. Customized talks are also available. 

Topics include;

♦    Chess and Decision Making: In this popular talk, Jennifer speaks about how chess can lead anyone to better decisions, even if they’re not expert players. 

♦  The Queen’s Gambit and Chess 101: An interactive workshop which uses the hit Netflix series and other sources to show chess basics.  

♦  Negotiation Tips from Poker Hands: Jennifer uses real poker hands to demonstrate key issues in finance and negotiation. Even though some of the hands she shows are from the top players in the World, Jennifer breaks down the action so that a total newcomer can understand. 

♦    Chess Queens: Jennifer charts the progress of female chess champions, intertwining her own story, while bringing in related debates in gender and culture, from sexualization and harassment to the stereotype threat. This workshop can be offered in multiple formats, from a research focused talk, to a deep dive into chess, to an art focus, where attendees create their own feminist art based on the history of the chess queen.  This talk dovetails with Jennifer’s new book, Chess Queens. 

♦  Art, Chess and Marcel Duchamp: Jennifer talks about chess from the prism of art, with a focus on the chess career and chess-related art of Marcel Duchamp. 

♦ Why Chess? Through video, art and data, Jennifer explains why we should spread chess literacy, especially to young people and women.