Photo Jacob Okada

Jennifer Shahade is a chess player, writer and web-editor of www.uschess.org. A two-time U.S. Women's champion, her first championship win was in 2002, in the first year that the women and men were combined into the same section. Her second was in 2004, where she placed first in the strongest Round Robin women's field in U.S. chess history.

In 2004, Jennifer's first book, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport was published. The crisp writing, original interviews with players like Judit Polgar and Zhu Chen, and controversial title gave her a lot of media attention, including coverage in Reader's Digest, the New York Times, NPR radio, and Time Out New York. Besides her numerous reports in Chess Life Magazine and Chess Life Online, Jennifer's writing has also appeared in The New York Times, the L.A. Times, New in Chess, Foreword Magazine, and bookslut.com. Jennifer graduated in 2002 from NYU, with a degree in comparative literature.

Jennifer's style and opening repertoire are aggressive. She excels in open and attacking positions, but in quiet positions, she often plays impatiently.

Jennifer Shahade was born into a chess family. Her brother Greg is an IM, and her father, Michael a three-time Pennsylvania State Champion. Greg organizes the U.S. Chess League. Jennifer is the manager of the New York Knights, last year's Eastern division champion.

Jennifer blogs on www.uschess.org, and writes most and photographs much of the content for Chess Life Online and the Top Player Bios. She welcomes thoughts on the site and ideas for articles. E-mail her at jshahade@uschess.org.

Here is a smooth victory Jennifer played in the 2003 U.S. Championship against IM Stan Kriventsov.