Inside Scoop On A 2x U.S. Women’s Champion

At this year’s US Open, I had the privilege of interviewing one of my personal heroes, WGM Jennifer Shahade, for my forthcoming documentary film The United States of Chess sponsored by the 501(c)(3) non-profit 1000GM. She is a 2x US Women’s Champion and PokerStars Ambassador.

Chess, poker, and advocacy for women’s rights all hold a special place in my life. Shahade is a trailblazer in all of these areas which provides me with daily inspiration. For full disclosure, I was incredibly lucky to have Jennifer Shahade as my editor at US Chess Online and she helped craft one of my favorite pieces about Fabiano Caruana winning the 2018 Candidates. But, that is a story for another day!

What I want to focus on here is the incredible bravery that Jennifer Shahade has shown in the gargantuan task of making society more equitable. Women are severely underrepresented in all levels of chess and she co-authored a landmark study that has found good evidence that inherent bias in parents and mentors may be the root cause. She has also created the Ladies Knight podcast focuses on the stories of women and underrepresented people in chess. She started and served as the Director of the US Chess Women’s Program until her resignation earlier this year. And, of course, she is the leader in the current Me-Too movement in chess having successfully rooted out a despicable predator in Saint Louis. 

 In poker, she is a PokerStars Ambassador and the advocate for creating a safe space for women that the game has needed for a very long time. Her outreach efforts are promoting and involving women in poker like never before. Have I mentioned that she is good? Yes, she is a professional-level player and has cashed hundreds of thousands in live tournament earnings. The crossover between her chess and poker skills is quite apparent! She even got chess players like me to enter her Platinum Poker Pass contest back in December of 2022! It's an arty poker short so watch at your own risk (special thanks to Jack Scott for letting me use this footage). 

With all of these amazing accomplishments in mind, I would like to present an excerpt from my interview with Shahade that will likely appear in The United States of Chess.  Enjoy!

Coach Q: When did you start the journey of writing this book [Chess Queens]?

Jennifer Shahade: It's based on my first book Chess Bitch... So the process really started ages ago, like soon after I graduated college… but I write other books as well. I also am writing a book called Play Like a Champion, and I've written Play Like a Girl. It's all about female empowerment and taking what people think of as weak and turning it into something strong. I'm [also] working on a book called Thinking Sideways, which is all about how in chess a lot of people who don't play the game, think that it's about thinking far ahead. But the way I see it, it's more about thinking about all your options or thinking sideways…

Coach Q: Where did that title come from, Thinking Sideways?

Jennifer Shahade: By journalists and interviewers constantly asking me how many moves I think ahead. And me realizing like, wait a second, usually it's actually about how many different moves I might have seen or missed right in front of me. And then I think when the 2020 pandemic happened, it occurred to me that very similarly to chess, it wasn't about being able to think years ahead. We had to figure out what we wanted to do now to make the situation better for ourselves and our loved ones, right? And for the society, have to expect the unexpected! And when that happens, all your plans go out the window and you just have to make the best move right now. And I think that chess teaches us to be flexible in that way…

Coach Q: Let's talk about your, your own history playing chess. Can you tell us some of your first memories of learning chess?

Jennifer Shahade: So my first memory of learning chess, I was probably like six or five, I think I was trying to remember it again. And I have a vague memory of that… and I really remember my first tournament… I think I was around nine at the time. And I won my first game… I remember it was the Nationals in Florida. And, at first, I wasn't even gonna play. I was just tagging along 'cause my brother [Greg Shahade] was playing and my brother's fantastic. But I ended up playing and I won. And afterward, the kids said to me, you played really well for an unrated player, always remember that compliment. I mean, hey, you know, that's, that's the value of giving compliments. Somebody might remember them like 30 years later!

Coach Q: So what captivated you the most about playing chess? 

Jennifer Shahade: I really did enjoy going to hotels and I think I enjoyed the absorption of the game, like the ability to focus. But, it was a little later that I got really obsessed with chess. So around the ages of 9-13. So I started doing other things, you know, theater writing, and kind of just dabbled in chess.

But then there was one summer in which I went to this acting camp and I was really bullied a lot at this camp... I was just kind of frustrated by that. And then, as soon as the acting camp was over, I went to a chess tournament. And, so I didn't make friends at the acting camp... In fact, the only friend I made, I remember was one of the most popular guys at the camp because we would play Pac-Man together. And I feel like that was a bit of an omen as well because it was like, oh, okay, there's all these cool girls, but somehow I'm hanging out with the most popular guy because we're playing a game! So I dunno, that was a bit of an omen of what was to come.

Soon thereafter, I played in a chess tournament and I mean, I started doing really well in the tournament for my rating and having a lot of fun, beating a lot of friends from all over the country, boys and girls. And, that was definitely an awakening for me as the fun of chess and my talent in chess kind of coincided. I think after that I just really dove in. When I started to get invited to play in international competitions for chess, it was really a life changer. You know, I had never left the country before and I got invited to play in the same month in Brazil and Iceland. You know, and I could see the world. And after that, of course, there was an intrinsic motivation…

Coach Q: How old were you then? 

Jennifer Shahade: I was 15... And then additionally I started to get more absorbed in the art of chess. 

Coach Q: So, okay, you're 15, you're going to these international competitions. When did you know that you would have a shot at winning the U.S. Women's Championship?

Jennifer Shahade: I think the first year I played I was 16 and I think I got a plus score. Five out of nine, I believe... I was second place when I was around 19. And that was a really interesting one that I kind of described in Chess Queens because I lost by half a point and I could trace back the game that had cost me a chance at the title.

So normally I would struggle with time pressure and double checking, triple checking variations. But in this particular game, for some reason, I had the opposite problem. I was struggling with overconfidence, I was playing quickly. It was my game, [the] Dragon, playing brilliantly. Convert, easy end game. Oh my gosh! I miscalculated by one tempo. It's a draw... I mean, I had a million ways to win before that tempo, and I was like... How did I… I was always on this side, not confident enough, and now I overshot and I was a bit too confident. And then, I see the title escape me, and I realize that nothing is easy when you wanna be a champion. When you're fighting with nine people who want it just as much as you, it's never gonna be easy. And you gotta find that balance. And I think the times that I won, I was able to just, you know, get into that zone of confidence without ever underestimating my opponent and their resources.

Coach Q: Not many people know what it's like to miss a chance like that before we get to the successes. Can you tell us how that feels?

Jennifer Shahade: Yeah. I felt terrible after the game, partly because as an artist, I also felt it was my opening, the Sicilian Dragon. Not only did I cause myself a chance at the title, but also I was playing this fantastic game and I over-pressed and ruined my creation! So it was kind of doubly annoying. And when I saw the playoff between the two co-champions, I was like, God, I should have been there.

Coach Q: And then did you use that as fuel, like to get yourself back?

Jennifer Shahade: I think so. I think I did. Yeah. I mean, it was very disappointing, but I did keep working at it and, you know, I had another close call where I could've won three championships. I earned an IM norm and I ended up in a three-way tie for one of the U.S. women's championship titles. This would, I was, this would've been my second title if I wanted. And I lost the playoff. I was never really that good at blitz. I was always more of a classical girl, so as soon as I ended up in the playoff, my chances went a little bit down.  

Coach Q: Even though you did tie for first, not getting the title hurts that bad? 

Jennifer Shahade: Definitely. I mean, the title's way more important than tying for first. Titles are so important. I mean, I also have the US Junior Open title. I was the first female to win that. And, that was a significant title as well. I think in the scheme of your career, the titles are always very important.

Coach Q : Why is that?

Jennifer Shahade: Because you can look back on them as major achievements and in the end, whoever won the first place is the one that gets their name in the record book.

If you enjoyed this excerpt, please go read her books! Next, join The King Chess Exclusive Club, where you can get 1 week of free diamond membership and get a sneak peek at my first documentary King Chess  (to be released worldwide mid-2024), and stay up to date on all the progress on my future film The United States of Chess. Thank you all for your support! Oh yeah, I would be remiss if I didn't share a fun game of hers. Here she won a nice game against GM Perelshteyn in the 2003 US Championship: