Chess Queens

In recent years, there has been a growing movement to promote greater gender equality in chess. One of the most influential chess profiles in this regard is Jennifer Shahade. A few months ago, I heard an interview with her on Daniel Lona's podcast, where Shahade talked about her latest book and some compelling stories about the most prominent female chess players throughout history. After hearing this interview, I felt that I was painfully uninformed about female chess players. Curious to find out more, I read her book Chess Queens.

If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details.
Become a Patron!

What can you expect from this book?

Jen Shahade is an American chess player, writer, and commentator. She is a WGM and two-time U.S. Women's Chess Champion. In addition to her work in chess, Shahade has also been involved in advocacy for women in chess and other fields, and has served as an ambassador for the game.

Chess Queens is a book about the history and cultural significance of female chess players. The book explores the contributions of women to the game of chess, and profiles some of the most notable female chess players throughout history. It is an updated version of Shahade's previous book Chess Bitch (2005).

In Chess Queens, Shahade provides a comprehensive and engaging look at the history and cultural significance of female chess players. From the earliest recorded female players to modern-day grandmasters, Shahade profiles some of the most notable women in chess and explores their contributions to the game. Through a blend of historical analysis and personal anecdotes, Shahade delves into the challenges and triumphs faced by women in the chess world, offering insight into the ongoing struggle for gender equality.

In Chess Queens, Shahade duscusses the role of feminism in the chess world. Shahade is only one of many people who have pointed to the inequalities and biases that women have faced in the game. These can include a lack of support and opportunities for women to participate in chess at the highest levels, as well as a lack of recognition for their achievements.

Chess Queens is an important book. As a chess trainer in my local club, creating a female friendly environment is a continually ongoing struggle. Like many clubs, we have a similar volume of girls and boys among our youngest newcomers, but for some reason, the girls do not stay to the same extent. One of many reasons is the lack of female role models. Showcasing female players, their games and accomplishments can help to amend this by providing inspiration and create a more welcoming and inclusive environment for female chess players.

With her book, Shahade address the lack of representation of women in the chess media and popular culture and thereby contributes to challenge stereotypes and biases that may discourage women from participating in the game.

Chess Queens has received a lot of praise since its publication earlier this year. Several people in the Twittersphere has mentioned it as the best chess book of 2022. It also has a solid 4.5-star rating on Amazon. In a recent review on Chessbase, we can read the following summary:

In my opinion, Chess Queens can be an excellent advertisement for chess itself, as it is portrayed as exciting, complex, and at the same time attractive for women and men alike. I encourage chess players (of all levels and ages) and people interested in inspirational life stories to read the book, as it provides an enormously valuable insight into the chess world, the minds of players, and the benefits of being a professional chess player.

I definitely agree with the opinion in this quote, and give the book my whole-hearted recommendation. If that is not enough for you, and you want to find out more about the book, I recommend the interviews with Shahade on The Chess Experience (Ep. 14) and The Perpetual Chess Podcast (Ep. 269).

Who should read this book?

Chess Queens is a welcome addition to the literature on chess history. By showcasing the many great female players, the book contributes to breaking the bias towards male playes in chess literature. The book aims to provide a comprehensive and engaging look at the role of women in chess, and is suitable for chess players and non-players alike. I would consider it mandatory reading for anyone interested in chess history.

About this book

Author:	Jennifer Shahade
Title:	Chess Queens
Type of book:	Biography
Level:	Any

Comments

Popular reviews

Chaos on the board

Have you ever felt tired of chess? Maybe you’ve been uninspired or perhaps you think it’s too much work. To paraphrase a famous movie: All work and no play makes you a dull person. If that is the case, I may have a cure. You need a fun chess book. Something that will rekindle your joy for the game and inspire you to play creatively. I give you Tiger’s Chaos Theory ! This book found me at a time when I needed it the most. My inspiration and motivation to study chess was way down. And like a bolt from the blue, the Swedish Chess Federation approached me and wanted me to review this book. And the kind people at Quality Chess agreed to send me a review copy. An offer I couldn't refuse. So after this happy turn of events, I have a new review for you. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Grandmaster Tiger Hillarp Persson, a multi-time Swedish chess champion, has al...

Winning chess strategies

Chess strategy is one of the most elusive and difficult parts of chess. Compared to the direct and transparent world of chess tactics, strategy can be confusing and opaque. At the patzer level, tactical strikes that gain material or lead to checkmate can be obvious (provided that one understands the tactic). However, in many cases, strong players claim that a move is obvious although it doesn't result in material gain or even a semblance of an attack. We, the patzers of the world, scratch our heads and wonder how on earth anyone can find such moves obvious. How can we take steps towards this deeper level of chess understanding? Picking up a basic strategy book is a good first step. And that's what I did here. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? As a part of my ambition to deepen my understanding of chess strategy, I took on a mission of reading (and rev...

My system should be your system?

One of the greates classics of chess literature. That's at least what it says on the cover. But let's not judge a book by the cover. Instead, we could listen to what others have said about this book. In his review of My system , John Watson writes: "We no longer consider many classics to be essential to a chess education, not since the Internet; but if there’s an exception, Nimzowitch’s work is it". These are big words from a big man. Watson is an authority of chess theory, so his evaluation should not be taken too lightly. Although My system has frequently been mentioned among the greatest books of all time, and has been recommended by many players , it has also been the subject of controversy. Of course, when the book was first published (almost 100 years ago), many ideas in the book challenged many of the established principles of chess theory at the time, and other authorities dismissed the ideas. But also to this day, many people are unimpressed with the b...

Estimating playing strength

Have you ever felt like your chess rating doesn't represent your actual playing strength? Sometimes we want to be able to estimate playing strength based on individual games rather than rating (which changes more slowly). During the past few months, I've been taking a number of online courses and learning python for data analysis. In one of the courses, the final project allowed me to choose my own dataset. So surprise surprise! I chose something chess related. (Not really surprised, are you?) When we play games online, getting a computer evaluation is just a few clicks away. And a commonly used statistic is the average centipawn loss, or simply the average deviation from the computer's best move. Many of us tend to think that centipawn loss (CPL) is a good estimate of playing strength. And, of course, it gives some indication, but it's far from a perfect predictor. Fellow chess/statistics blogger Patrick Coulombe has investigated the correlation between rating and CPL ...

Understanding middlegames

Have you ever found yourself unable to find a move in the middlegame? Of course you have. We all have. About ten years ago, this was a recurring problem for me, which led to a lot of frustration. My conclusion was that I needed to learn how understand middlegames. So what better way than to read a book with the title Understanding Chess Middlegames ? Sound like the perfect remedy, right? Ok, let's find out. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? I first read this book when I was just starting to study chess seriously. I bought it after reading a recommendation in an online forum. I would say this was ten years ago, but the book came out 2011, so it couldn't have been before that. Anyhow, my playing strength was probably around 1200 (I was unrated at the time) and I was having trouble choosing moves in non-tactical positions. Basically, I was playing without ...

Patzer's review

Search This Blog