Jennifer Shahade

Jennifer Shahade is a two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, author, speaker and ambassador for PokerStars and Poker Power. The first female to win the US Junior Open, Jennifer is passionate about empowerment and creative work around the games she loves most, chess and poker. She is the author of Chess Queens: The True Story of a Chess Champion and the Greatest Female Players of All Time, a blend of memoir, interview and analysis, which both celebrates women in chess, while criticizing the game's sexist and traditional attitudes. Through her work with US Chess Women, which brings chess to thousands of girls across the country, and her cross-cultural program, which brings chess to girls all over the World, from Colombia to Kenya, Jennifer is on a lifelong mission to make games and male-dominated spaces more inclusive. Jennifer hosts two award-winning podcasts, the GRID and Ladies Knight. The GRID, which won the 2020 Global Poker Award for the best poker podcast in the World, is both a reference to the 8×8 chess board, and the 13×13 color coded grid of all possible poker hands. Stay up to date with Jennifer on her official website, jennifershahade.com and twitter.com/jenshahade.