The US Chess Scoop on the World Chess Hall of Fame June 5, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : art,chess , 1 comment so far
I’m happy to announce that I’ve been elected to the board of directors for the World Chess Hall of Fame, a wonderful institution that is moving from Miami to the locus of American chess, Saint Louis. But even before the doors open on September 9th, the World Chess Hall of Fame has partnered with HBO and Moxie Firecracker Productions to co-host Bobby Fischer Against the World events in Park City Utah, New York and Saint Louis. The movie, directed by Liz Garbus, kicks off the HBO Documentaries series on June 6th. I posted a piece on CLO including photos by Suzy Gorman about the Saint Louis event. Watch a US Chess Scoop video on the New York premiere, which featured a star-studded blitz tournament in Bryant Park. Stay posted on the World Chess Hall of Fame on facebook and twitter.
Madrid Gallery: From Poker to El Prado May 31, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : poker,travel , 1 comment so farIn May, I traveled to Madrid for the European Poker Tour Women’s Live package I won on PokerStars. During my stay in Madrid, I played a little poker and spent the rest of the time meeting new people and exploring the beautiful Spanish capital. Living it up felt mandatory–my Stars bankroll was direct deposited into my account the day before my flight. Full Tilt players are sadly, still waiting for their money. It was bittersweet when I picked up what would most likely be my last PokerStars gift bag, which included a paperback copy of Victoria Coren’s book For Richer or Poorer, a hot pink hoodie and a stuffed shark holding two aces in his fins. PokerStars sure knows how to do swag. For a full trip report, read my piece on PokerStars Women, and see photos from the trip below.
Poker, Chess & Black Friday April 18, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : chess,poker , add a commentWith just an hour to go till the 2011 US Chess Championships kicked off in Saint Louis, I logged on to twitter to promote the live coverage on uschesschamps.com one last time. I saw a feed bloated with panicked tweets from the poker industry. Poker players are known to be dramatic, but just a few minutes of reading the monstrous twoplustwo thread and links on mainstream media outlets, I realized the gravity of the situation–Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker were no longer accepting US customers, while the owners were indicted for bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling. I rushed outside to make some calls and arrange for a cashout from Poker Stars. Whether it would help or not, I had no idea but I might as well get in the queue.
One of the most exciting moments in chess was coinciding with one of the ugliest in poker, quickly coined “Black Friday.” I had to get my mind back on the 64 squares so I shut out my sadness and joined GM Maurice Ashley in calling the play of 24 of the best chess minds in America.
They were playing at the beautiful Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, the host of the US Championship and the US Women’s Championship for the past three years. Many of the players in the competition had also dabbled in poker, hoping to follow the example of players such as original November niner, Ylon Schwartz and chess prodigy turned poker phenom Jeff Sarwer. A number of chessplayers had great success switching to poker, while just as many others had failed. But this time, chess players were having all the fun. As the most important and richest chess competition in the nation got underway, another tribe of gamesplayers was in panic mode.
It’s not just online poker that I’ll miss- I have a gut feeling that it will be back sooner than we think. I am terribly sad for all the professional players who have lost their incomes overnight, with no warning and just before tax day. I am also deeply saddened about Poker Stars in particular. Oftentimes when I told members of the poker industry about my accomplishments in chess and writing, I felt eyes glazing over—models and athletes dabbling in poker were stories, a chess master & author with books like Chess Bitch and Play Like a Girl was predictable. I’d seen disinterest by so many in the poker world that I was not terribly optimistic when I applied for a writing gig for Poker Stars Women, an initiative to bring more females into the game. So I was thrilled when Poker Stars did hire me as a member of the new writing team. The positive reinforcement leaked into my game, as I began to play better than ever, going deep in the Sunday Million several times in a row, and qualifying for a package to the Ladies PCA event in the beautiful Atlantis resort. I was spending more and more time on Poker Stars. When I was done with my “real work” for the day, I enjoyed nothing more than to log in and join my favorite tournaments. I looked forward to Sundays all week.
Poker Stars was the sponsor of one of the greatest innovations in American chess, the US Chess League. Some may call that previous statement biased, as the United States Chess League, now in its sixth season, was founded by my brother, an online poker pro and a Supernova on Stars. But the facts support my claim-the USCL featured the dozens of the strongest players in the country, from World #7 Hikaru Nakamura to reigning US Women’s Champion Irina Krush. The exciting structure and convenient schedule of the USCL also brought players many players out of retirement, including GM Patrick Wolff, who recently started a Bay Area hedge fund called Grandmaster Capital Management.
My heart dropped when I saw Poker Stars on the list of shut down sites and Isai Scheinberg on list of the indicted. Poker Stars’ readiness to support chess, women in poker along with aggressive anti-cheating measures and top-notch customer support gave me a soft spot for the company. I didn’t care if other players said the games on Stars were tougher than on other sites- it meant more to me to win there.
It’s always been clear to me that both chess and poker are games of skill. Listening to Shaun Deeb on timing tells is as fascinating to me as American World Championship candidate Gata Kamsky’s thought process in evaluating a knight sacrifice. Great poker and chessplayers go to creative depths to inch past their opposition, and such detail-oriented analysis has helped me as an artist and a thinker.
Games like chess and poker challenge us to confront our weaknesses. If I play a chess game or a hand badly, I have no one to blame but myself, and the hand history or game score is a reminder. One of my own weaknesses in both games is a discomfort with tension-my raises veer toward oversize and my chess style is very aggressive, in some cases overly so. As a chronic self-analyzer, I was always good at identifying such leaks, but the challenge was to fix them before tendency turned into habit.
Without trivializing the financial and logistical hardships that many players and members of the poker industry now face, I’m sure opportunities lay beyond the black clouds. Draconian legislation can do a lot of damage, but it can’t erase the vast online poker market. This may be a good time for me to learn to enjoy tension.
Vamos! My 2011 Schedule March 22, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : books,chess,poker,travel , add a comment
On tap for me in 2011 is a fun combination of book events, poker tourneys and chess promotion. Hope to see some of you and stay posted on my twitter.
San Francisco, CA, March 29th, 5:15-6:15, Mechanics Institute Play Like a Girl!: Tactics by 9 Queens lecture and book signing. Copies of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess and Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport will also be available. More information at chessclub.org.
Fremont, CA, April 1st, 5:30-9- simultaneous, book signing and lecture at the North Cal House of Chess.
Tucson, Arizona, April 2, 2-5 PM- 4th Annual 9 Queens Chess Fest and Play Like a Girl book signing at Hotel Congress. Shahade will play the red queen (a role she has always cherished) in a re-enactment of Lewis Carroll’s chess game in Through the Looking Glass.
Saint Louis, Missouri, April 14-28- Shahade will host live commentary with GM Maurice Ashley at the 2011 US Chess Championships and US Women’s Chess Championships, uschesschamps.com
Madrid, Spain, May 11-12- European Poker Tour Ladies Event
Las Vegas, Nevada, July- World Series of Poker Main Event
Saint Louis, Missouri, September 8th- Grand Opening of the World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum plus live commentary by Shahade at special event TBA
Hummus Throwdown Part III March 17, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : Uncategorized , add a commentFor the third year in a row, I hosted a hummus competition. This year we had a record-setting 11 entries and the best contenders ever.
Some contenders were classic Israeli style creamy with basic ingredients of tahini, chickpea and olive oil, while others pushed the chickpea, adding strong flavors of peppers, feta and even cinnamon.
The winner, Teira, was one of the more creative entries and her jalapeno/red pepper spiced hummus won by a landslide.
She received a $70 gift certificate to the fantastic Israeli restaraunt, Zahav. In Israel, the merits of various neighborhood’s hummus are debated as a matter of local pride. One Israeli guest said that the innovative entries would not fly. Another responded, “That’s what we do in America. We take something classic and add a bunch of junk to it.” If that doesn’t inspire you for Hummus Throwdown Part IV, you should probably just stick with peanut-butter.
Sunday Five Million on PokerStars March 4, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : poker , add a commentWho’s playing the Sunday Five Million on PokerStars? I’ve cashed in four out of the past five Sunday Millions, so I’m super-excited about continuing my streak, and maybe even learning to drive if I win that Lambourghini Gallado.
Lipstick Checkmate: The Play Like a Girl Trailer February 15, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : art,books,chess,feminism , 8 commentsThe Play Like a Girl! Tactics by 9 Queens (Mongoose Press, 2011) trailer is live.
Even though I’m hardly a make-up fiend, I was able to find 70% of the pieces in mostly abandoned make-up bags and vanity drawers.
Finding sixteen of one item was the main problem, but lipstick was the clear aesthetic and conceptual choice. A thirty dollar Chanel lipstick, purchased because I cannot afford anything else Chanel, co-mingled with one buck steals at the drugstore bargain bin. A pawn is still just a pawn.
Enjoy some stills from the shoot and pick up a copy of the book on 9queens.org, amazon, Mongoosepress or USCF Sales.
Play Like a Girl! Tactics by 9 Queens February 10, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : books,chess,feminism , add a comment
My new book, Play Like a Girl! Tactics by 9 Queens has arrived. The book is filled with chess puzzles and combinations, all executed by female players and is a perfect “prequel” to my first book, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport. All the author royalties go to 9 Queens initiatives to bring chess to inner-city youth and girls. Find out more on the Mongoose Press homepage and look for more details coming soon.
Sundance Gallery February 6, 2011
Posted by Jennifer in : art,chess,travel , add a commentA couple of weeks ago, I attended the Sundance Film Festival and saw the Fischer biopic Bobby Fischer Against the World, directed by Liz Garbus. I had a great time–Park City, Utah was absolutely gorgeous and the film was tight. The purpose of my visit was generally to promote chess and specifically to participate in a reception hosted by the World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum (mark the museum’s grand opening for September 8, 2011.) The reception displayed stunning never-seen before photos of Bobby by Harry Benson, who will also be showing his photos at a World Chess Museum exhibit in 2012. Watch the HBO Buzz clip below, where I was interviewed about the museum and Bobby’s influence on my generation of chessplayers. The Bobby Fischer Against the World section starts at 1:35.
Check out some photos of the event below by Shannon Bailey of the World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum and add the World Chess Museum on facebook for more. Also coming soon to uschess.org/clo is “Grandmasters Sundancing” a piece on the trip by three-time US Chess Champion Joel Benjamin.
The beautiful Sundance setting
At the reception
Promoting chess at Sundance
WIM Iryna Zenyuk, GM Alexander Shabalov, GM Joel Benjamin and me
Alexander Shabalov teaching a young Utah chess player.
PokerStars.tv Interview January 24, 2011
Posted by Administrator in : feminism,poker,travel , add a commentWhile at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, I gave an interview for PokerStars.tv. I’m pretty happy with it but all that stuff about building my online bankroll sounds so serious and mature, I should have just said I was going to win the Sunday Million!
