Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport

Front Cover
Siles Press, 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 320 pages
In the game of chess, the strongest piece?the Queen?is often referred to as ?bitch, ? and being female has been long considered a major disadvantage. Chess Bitch, written by the 2004 U.S. Woman's Chess Champion, is an eye-opening account of how today's young female chess players are successfully knocking down the doors to this traditionally male game, infiltrating the male-owned sporting subculture of international chess, and giving the phrase ?play like a girl? a whole new meaning. Through interviews with and observation of the young globetrotting women chess players who challenge male domination, Chess Bitch shines a harsh light on the game's gender bias. For those who think of chess as two people sitting quietly across a table, Shahade paints a colorful world that most chess fans never knew existed.

About the author (2005)

Jennifer Shahade, age 24, is an international chess icon. A chess master and two-time American Womens Chess Champion (2002, 2004), She has represented the U.S in international competitions in countries all over the world, including Spain, Russia, China, India, and Brazil. In 2002, Shahade received a degree in comparative literature from NYU, where she was an editor for the literary magazine Brio. Her writing has appeared in Chess Life Magazine, New In Chess, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Through the non-profit Chess-In-The Schools, she coaches inner-city youths, including a girls class, and the three-time National Junior High Championship team, I.S. 318. Shahade is a member of the artist collective Mano/Damno, a group that aims to blur the boundaries between life and art, and has participated in performance art projects at New Yorks psychogeography festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and The Viewing Room Art Gallery. Her Webpage is www.jennifershahade.com. She lives in Brooklyn.

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