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Chess In the Media

Chess gaining popularity in south suburban schools (The Star, IL)

Move over, Little League and soccer. For many youngsters and their parents, the king and his pawns may be taking over popular youth activities.

We're talking, of course, about chess.

Chess clubs and classes for elementary school children have been popular in the North and West suburbs, but the programs are gaining steam in this region, as the South Suburbs host the first statewide chess tournament in the area in two decades Saturday.

A Chess Queen Holds Court (Hartford Courant, CT)

Two-time American Women's Chess champion Jennifer Shahade hears a lot of discouraging theories as to why more women don't play chess - the distraction of menstruation and the lack of a subconscious desire to kill their fathers, among them.

In her book "Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport," the 24-year-old Manhattan resident looks at the jet-setting ways of women's chess, offers some feminist theory and profiles top female players - from the pioneering Polgar sisters to Alexandra Kosteniuk, the often bikini-clad "Anna Kournikova of chess."

Playtime Gets Serious: International chess master gives a few expert tips (Shore Publishing, CT)

On most Thursday nights, Bartleby's Chess Club members play the game among each other, happy to advance a pawn or prevent a checkmate. But last Thursday the excitement quotient was up a bit as two of Bartleby's members got the chance to play against international chess master Danny Kopec.

With six books and seven DVDs on the game, Kopec has been a chess player since age 8, when a cousin of his, an expert, showed him the ropes.

"At 12 I was playing in tournaments," Kopec said. "I was an expert at age 14 or 15 and master at age 17 upon entering college."

Do you know of an interesting, humorous, or unique chess story published online? E-mail us at newsletter@uschess.org.