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Chess In the Media

Ogden chess club develops skills beyond the game (Boone News Republican, IA)

Christopher Levi has always loved the game of chess. He began playing as a child but started playing on a regular basis about 10 years ago after moving to Iowa from Pittsburgh. It was at this point that he started playing with a Des Moines club. He is currently a member of the Cyclone chess club in Ames.

Knowing that Iowa really isn't big on the chess circuit, he decided to make chess available in the local area. Iowa's highest ranked player is an international master, which is lower than the highest rank of international grand master. Since mid-October, Levi has been holding chess meetings every second, fourth and fifth Thursday of the month at the Leonard Good Community Center in Ogden. Meetings are held from 6-8 p.m.

Levi comments that it's just a good way for people that share an interest in chess to get together. There are no members, just individuals who want to face some competition. At a typical meeting, attendance is around eight people. The meetings have attracted a lot of fathers and sons.

A little chess champion: No. 1-ranked Marion boy comes from family of talented players (The Southern Illinoisan)

While some kindergartners are learning to use their silverware politely, Ian Gilchrist is more concerned with forks.

Forks, for chess neophytes, are complex movements within the game of chess that invite a knight to threaten two other game pieces simultaneously. Mastery of the fork landed 6-year-old Ian an impressive title in a championship most people aren't aware of - No. 1 kindergarten chess player in the United States.

Actually, Ian tied for title of the best with two players from Dallas - but sharing the title of best in the country is an enormous accomplishment for a gentleman who wears Spiderman shoes.

A champion for women in chess (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Two-time U.S. Women's Chess Champion Jennifer Shahade, Philadelphia-born and -bred, might be called many things, but the B word isn't one of them.

Confident? Absolutely. Assertive? Definitely, especially when she plays. "She's a very aggressive, tactical player, very dangerous," says Elizabeth Vicary, a chess expert, one level below master. But Shahade, considered the game's strongest American-born female player, while an advocate of women and girl players, is the antithesis of a polarizing figure.

Yet, she has named her new book Chess Bitch, garnering attention and, in some quarters, resistance to printing the word. The title may be the most controversial aspect of this history and analysis of female players. That, and the cover image of an unrecognizable Shahade in pink wig and regalia. The photo makes her look like a post-punk priestess, a Gwen Stefani of the board.

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