Jennifer Shahade

Who is Jennifer Shahade?

Jennifer Shahade is an American chess player and writer. She is a two-time American women's chess champion and, as of October 2012, has a FIDE rating of 2322. She has the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster. Jennifer is the author of the book Chess Bitch. She also writes for the magazine Chess Life and is the daughter of FIDE Master Mike Shahade and Drexel University chemistry professor and author Sally Solomon, and the sister of International Master Greg Shahade.

In 1998, she became the first woman to win the U.S. Junior Open. In 2002, she won the U.S. Women's Chess Championship in Seattle, Washington. The following year, although she did not repeat as U.S. Women's Champion, she did well enough to earn her second of three required International Master norms. In 2004, she returned to the top spot among U.S. women chess players by winning the U.S. Women's Championship that year in a seven-player invitational round-robin tournament.

Shahade lives in Philadelphia and has earned a degree in comparative literature at New York University. Her writing has appeared in the LA Times, The New York Times, Chess Life, New In Chess, and chessninja.com.