Ladies Knight

On a special collaborative episode of Ladies Knight, Jennifer and Ben Johnson, host of the Perpetual Podcast, recap the recently concluded Women’s World Chess Championship, which Ju Wenjun won in spectacular style over her compatriot Grandmaster, Lei Tingjie.  They touch on their favorite moves from the final game, the moment Jennifer realized there may not be a...

Jennifer welcomes Bernice Wambui Gikandi to Ladies Knight. Bernice, at just 12 years old, is a rising star on and off the board. She’s the Global Youth ambassador for the Gift of Chess, a member of the Kenya Women’s Olympic team and reigning 2022 Kenya National Youth Champion. She also won the Under 12 Open...

Jennifer invites a very special guest to Ladies Knight: International Memory Grandmaster, Yanjaa Wintersoul. Yanjaa, the first woman to become a Memory World Champion, talks about how memory tricks apply to games, life and feminism. Yanjaa and Jennifer have a broad-ranging discussion on creative memory, spaced repetition and pattern recognition. They also touch on memory techniques (see Greg Shahade’s...

 Jennifer Shahade welcomes Megan Chen to Ladies Knight. Megan, a recent contributor to Chess Life Magazine, is currently on a great American quest to play US rated chess in every state. She’s already ticked off 44, and plans to be the first female player ever to get to all 50. A passionate adult improver, software...

Ladies Knight host Jennifer Shahade had the opportunity this Winter to meet an epic guest: Holocaust Survivor and 1956 French Women’s Chess Champion Isabelle Choko. We celebrate this occasion by rebroadcasting the episode and presenting two chess.com videos that Jennifer filmed in Paris, as well as a carousel of photos from Jennifer’s game against Madame Choko herself. 

Our 50th Ladies Knight guest is Kalanithi “Kala” Kanapathy-Bagley, the founder of the Discovery Chess Academy and a member of US Chess Women’s committee, and popular and friendly face at our National Girls Clubs. She organizes the Ohio Chess Girls Championships and is a vocal proponent for bringing the benefits of chess to everyone. One of...

Jennifer Shahade speaks to WFM Devina aka “Simply Devina” Devagharan about her streaming career, and her strong advocacy for mental health in the chess world and beyond. They discuss the psychological challenges and benefits of the game and Devina’s positive approach to streaming and content.  Devina was a guest at our virtual girls club room,...

Jennifer Shahade brings Senior Tournament Director and four-time All Girls Nationals Team champ Maya Myers to Ladies Knight. In 2022, Myers became the first African American woman to earn the International Arbiter title.  Maya and Jennifer discuss her role and reaction to Brooklyn Castle, the acclaimed documentary film about IS 318, which she attended with...

Jennifer Shahade welcomes high-school sophomore Laurel Aronian to Ladies Knight. Laurel is a president of her high school chess team, St. Luke’s, and talks to Jennifer about how she maintains her interest in the game while juggling a busy high school academic and extracurricular schedule.  Laurel talks to Jennifer about keeping more girls in the...

Jennifer welcomes Women’s International Master Luciana Morales to Ladies Knight. Luciana is a three-time Continental Champion, the first Peruvian woman to qualify for the Women’s World Champs and an Olympian captain and player. Now hailing from Brownsville, Texas, Luciana works for chessable, where she was recently promoted to Classroom Manager. She  goes by “Mom’s Gambit” on social...

Jennifer welcomes Tatia Skhirtladze to Ladies Knight. Skhirtladze is the director and producer of “Glory to the Queen”, a documentary film exploring the outstanding success of Georgian women in chess, focused on four legends of the game: Nona Gaprindashvili, Maia Chiburdanidze, Nana Ioselaini and Nana Alexandria. Jennifer and Tatia speak about highlights from her film,...

In a special episode of Ladies Knight, Jennifer Shahade takes on listener questions, ranging from a member of her girls chess club who struggles with closing winning positions, to previous guest Laura Smith on how Jennifer would approach a return to professional chess. She also answers a question from podcaster Daniel Lona who asks about...

Jennifer is joined by Yosha Iglesias, a multi-talented chess professional:  a FIDE Master, composer, coach and  YouTuber. She also works for chess24, and is  among the top ten female players in France, (ranked #9 in June 2022). Jennifer and Yosha speak about how the Eureka moment of solving a chess problem can be similar to...

Jennifer interviews author, chess coach as well as a longtime friend of Jen’s, Jessica Era Martin, to Ladies Knight. Jessica is the founder of Over the ChessBoard, a coaching organization dedicated to bringing chess everyone. A published poet and frequent contributor to chesskid, she’s also the author of several books, including two 2022 titles, Chess...

In this special episode of Ladies Knight, host Jennifer Shahade invites you to join her on the road, starting with her Chess Queens book launch in London, where she visited a girls school called Sarah Bonnell, a women’s group called the “Trouble Club”, and our friends at the London Chess & Bridge Shop. She moves...

Jennifer welcomes Women’s International Master and former Ukrainian Champion Anastasiya Rakhmangulova to Ladies Knight. Jennifer first heard about Anastasia, who goes by “Nastia”, in the 2020 Isolated Queens tournament, an online event that Jen hosted with Alexandra Botez at the start of the pandemic. Almost two years later, Nastia began to update her Instagram followers...

Jennifer Shahade welcomes a chess champion, friend and leader to Ladies Knight: Martha Fierro of Ecuador. Martha is a woman with many titles: she’s a FIDE Vice President, an International Master, a Women’s Grandmaster, International Organizer and a two-time Olympic medalist. She’s also one of Jennifer’s earliest inspirations: Jennifer first met Martha at a small...

US Chess expert and quant sports trader Ella Papanek joins Jennifer Shahade on Ladies Knight for a fascinating discussion. A recent graduate of Harvard University, Ella works at the Susquehana International Group (SIG), a global quantitative trading firm in the Philly area. Her interests span from chess to poker to sports, and of course- statistics, her major...

Jennifer welcomes International Master Rusudan Goletiani to Ladies Knight. Goletiani is a three-time World Youth Champion, a two-time Olympic medalist and a former US Women’s Champion- she took Jennifer’s title in 2005!   Rusudan recently gave a riveting presentation in the girls club at the K-12 Nationals in Orlando, Florida, about the struggles she encountered on...

Jennifer Shahade welcomes artist, sculptor and Fulbright Scholar Donna Dodson on to the GRID. In 2018, Dodson created an epic chess set for a show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, “the Match of the Matriarchs,” and she invited Jennifer, Daniel Meirom and Kledia Spiro to collaborate with her. The centerpiece of the show was a chess set...