Chess Bitch: Women In The Ultimate Intellectual Sport (Hardcover)

by Jennifer Shahade (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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. Shahade begins by profiling the lives of great women players from history, starting with Vera Menchik, who defeated male professionals with incredible frequency and became the first woman’s World Champion in 1927. She then investigates the women’s chess dynasties in Georgia and China. She interviews the famous Polgar sisters, who refused to play in separate women's tournaments. She details her own chess adventures—traveling to tournaments from Reykjavik to Istanbul. And Shahade introduces us to such lesser-known chess personalities as the flamboyant Zambian player Linda Nangwale and the transgendered Texan Angela Alston and the European female chess players who hop from one country to another, playing chess by day and partying long into the night. 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.

From the Publisher
"One woman’s fascinating true story of the life of a champion chess player. All women should take up the challenge and pick up a board! Chess anyone?" —Yoko Ono

"With crisp prose and a hypnotic rhythm, Shahade runs us through a vast range of colorful, affirming characters. Chess Bitch is a worldwide trot in search of a common humanity, a precise critique and a wild ride that transcends its own subject." —J.C. Hallman, author of The Chess Artist: Genius, Obsession, and the World’s Oldest Game

"She speaks playfully and provocatively on chess as meditation, as art and as philosophy …how passion can be more interesting than genius, and the importance of sexy."—The Philadelphia Independent

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Siles Press (September 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189008509X
• ISBN-13: 978-1890085094
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #406,783 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Polgar's Book, December 12, 2005

A Kid's Review

Jennifer goes into the nitty gritty of the inside world of girl's chess. The fact she is truthful and doesn't spare anyone of either the good and bad of things makes this a better book than Susan Polgar's book.
Do you want a book that tells things the way they are, or a nicy, nicy book looking at the world through rose colored glasses? True, some people want everything will butter on it and feel the world must be "fair" to all.
Perhaps some historical facts are up to debate, but a couple of the other reviewers may have their "facts" wrong themselves and need to provide their "sources" when trying to correct anyone.

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWEFULLY GOOD!, December 11, 2005

A Kid's Review

This is the best book with a true perspective of women's chess. Just ask Beatrice Marinello of the USCF (she is a USCF National Master, great chess teacher and has been USCF Scholastic director and Executive Director - Need any more credentials?) who attended the book breaking ceremony with Jennifer Shahade.

It appears that the INTERNET CHESS AUTHOR STALKER continues to attack Jennifer's books (rumor has it that it is a person with the initials E. L. who sued the USCF some 20 years ago or so). Just look at these recent reviews (so short so they could be written in a hurry and be plentiful).

Jennifer Shahade gives her point of view on things and says what she feels. There is no libel at all in the book as you certainly don't see any lawsuits over anything written. It is toned down mellow-yellow like the book on the Polgar sisters (which doesn't really tell it the way it is as it must be rated "G" as compared to a "PG13" for Shahade).

If you like reading a little history, yes with perhaps a little bit of gossip, then you will like this book.

61 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simply a brilliant writer / interviewer / analyst! , October 21, 2005

By	Mark Ashland "formerly 2200+" (Washington, DC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First other books by women I've enjoyed: Kitchen, NP, The Good Earth, Ethan Frome, The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, Mrs Dalloway, The God of Small Things, and The Bell Jar.

Second me: I am an American, well-read, male, feminist, CPA, lawyer, former national master (current expert), w/out an international rating, and with a graduate degree.

Finally her: CB is excellently written, researched, and a real page-turner for this well-read author's first book! Ms Shahade's choices about who to dwell on and what to reveal about them and how to blend diverse aspects into a central theme is profoundly satisfying and unique. Her leading insider status and enthusiasm for the general topic helped her presentation a lot and also very helpful to the book is her candid, direct style regardless of whether she is writing about her friends / rivals (the other current top women players) or others from the past that she had to do research to get to know and understand. As a world traveller the author has a lot of her own ongoing experiences and anecdotes to draw upon. CB is a revealing look into the mind of a leading women's grandmaster and thinker about an important sport. CB is essential to anyone such as myself who is trying to understand how feminism in a sub-culture surfaces and is dealt with reasonably.

Us the readers get a lot of value from CB regardless of whether or not we know how to play chess! I cannot emphasize that enough! CB is a bargain, really: we are getting the ultimate insider tour of a top level of women competitors plus an analysis of how feminism comes into play in various ways both subtle and profound and not in ways you would guess by yourself without the author's help. Look, this is a young, bright, energetic author who is articulate and accessible and generous and cares more about her life experiences than simply racking up championship titles. Whether the readers are already knowledgeable about feminism or not, CB in an understandable way relates feminism as it exists in the chess world.

#5 female in the world GM Alexandra Kosteniuk is given a balanced exam; the Polgars were dealt with in interesting detail as well; Susan's struggles and successes are included. Judit's the greatest woman in chess ever, but the author was not intimidated and did a great job dissecting her. Sofia's Rome fantastic result was discussed and analysed with the third best of these remarkable sisters. Their home schooling is also described in very interesting detail. The person who had a sex change operation deserved a face to face interview and her own chapter - Ms Shahade gave her both although the person is only an expert in the USA. A lot of lesser authors would have looked to the rating instead of to the story and missed writing that excellent chapter. The Iranian and Ms Nangwale and IM Krush were all three portrayed very, very positively as they all three deserved. However, the soul of the writer's attention is clearly Sonja Graf. Perhaps the author identifies subconsciously with Ms Graf the most because she really tied feminism into the top level of chess for perhaps the first time. I realized this chapter would be the most intense early on and read this great chapter last, by the way. The 1st Women's World Champ Vera Menchik, tragically killed at an early age in WWII's London Blitz after returning from safe S America, is included as is the USA's Lisa Lane and others.

That I was learning a lot of new ideas and facts and history on seemingly every page was an awesome characteristic of my CB reading experience! The author also captured the alienation of being relatively very popular with an unusually great family support but simultaneously perched precariously on the top rung of a ladder of nonstop activity that goes on for her and the others all over the world whether it is chess tournaments or exploration walks or intense conversations or chance encounters or all night long parties.

The author does a great job drawing people out and getting revealing answers and conversational exchanges going that I found to be of extraordinary intensity. Answers, if weak, got challenged vigorously and appropriately by the author. Part of the brilliant and deeply profound and unsettling ideas strung throughout CB is that this author provokes your thoughts as well as teaches and inspires you and clearly truly cares about what happens to tournament chess and to feminism and to the reader's thoughts about all this.

The theme that runs through and connects the chapters is this, I think:
Women are equal to men generally in their chess competence and in their intellects; the low % of top women players is only due to the fact that women players also have correspondingly low participation rates in chess tournaments for unclear reasons probably having something to do with females' societal constraints and responsibilities and expectations and pressures and outside interests that are generally different from males'.

The author's "babies crying overhead" co-ed chess tournament gender test is hilarious and is a challenge and simultaneously is a metaphor that fits in thematically. Great writers as a rule use symbols to explain things differently and more deeply than is possible without them and this one - Ms Shahade - is no exception to that rule. Perhaps this gifted and talented author will next apply her excellent feminist instincts and knowledge to fiction now that she has done a non-fiction book.

HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for both tournament chess players and non-players since feminism in a sub-culture is explored in amazingly stunning depth.