Jennifer Shahade

Jennifer Shahade

National Chess Champion, Speaker, and Poker Pro

Jennifer Shahade is a three-time National Chess Champion, speaker, and poker pro. She is the first woman to win the U.S. Junior Open, a silver medalist at the Chess Olympiad, and a two-time Global Poker Award winner. She recently achieved a career-best finish at the North American Poker Tour in Las Vegas and has won poker tournaments worldwide. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. She is featured regularly on major news outlets to speak about chess news, women in the game, and building life skills through games. Jennifer is passionate about self-improvement and creative work around the games she loves most: chess and poker.

Book cover for "Thinking Sideways" by Jennifer Shahade, featuring chess pieces and orange-tan checkered pattern; subtitle: "How to Think Like a Chess Player and Win at Life.
In this excerpt from her new book, Jennifer Shahade argues that the smartest move in life, as in chess, is sometimes a sideways one.