Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport
by Jennifer Shahade
Jacket Design and Photography by Wade Lageose for Lageose Design
Author Photo (front) by Gabrielle Revlock
Author Photo (inside) by Paul Truong

Stand in the chess section of your local bookstore (in the games section) and pull a few books off the shelf.

Arrange the titles on the floor with portraits of world class chess players on the cover: not one of them will be wearing a pink wig and mittens (or anything close) on the cover. You'll be left with one: Jennifer Shahade's Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport.

The cover photo (taken by fellow wiglover, Gabrielle Revlock) first appeared, uncredited, alongside those taken by New York Photographer Karen E Evans for Bust Magazine's Spring 2004 "Freaks and Geeks" issue. Other photos in the magazine (like this one) show Jennifer with her long, naturally curly hair. It's an unusual photo choice (not to mention title) for what a book exploring the history of women in chess.

I visited Jennifer in New York just over a year ago, and I asked then what the cover would look like. Back then, she wasn't sure about how it would work. After seeing this cover, I knew she had her say, and I sent her a few questions to which she, graciously, replied.

MMM: At your apartment, you were surrounded by chess books. The covers of them range from awful to brilliant (I especially like the look of Kasparov's Great Predecessors series, though I haven't the patience to read them). What are some of the chess books you have that you think are beautiful to look at? How much does it influence your personal buying?

Jen Shahade: Most chess books are writtten under a very quick time limit and with little effort. This is understandable since the audience of most chess books is small but reliable. Luckily, the owner of my publishing company [Siles Press] is an artist, and is very intent on making beautiful books. (e.g, Her husband Jeremy Silman's Reasses Your Chess Series are also very handsome.) I agree that the Kasparov books look nice, although it's too bad that unlike the Russian editions, they have no photos inside. A new publishing company called Quality Chess puts out very well designed (and well written) books.

MMM: How do you feel about the look of the finished book?

JS: My book took a year and a half to research, write and rewrite. When I finally submitted a final draft, it took another nine months to complete the design. This was painful, but the payoff is that I'm very happy with all aspects of the look: cover, font, photos inside.

MMM: Whose idea was the wig photo? What's the story behind it (who took it)?

JS: A couple years ago, I shot a series of pink photos of my family and friends for a pink party. The cover photo was taken on my roof by my friend the artist and dancer Gabrielle Revlock. Gabi and I took turns modelling that same pink outfit I'm wearing. My mother, father, brother, the chessplayer Irina Krush, and a few other non-chess friends were all among the models who dressed in pink wigs and outfits for me—that cover photo was only one out of about a hundred in the series. For the party, I bought pink lights, pink M+M's,etc. and decorated the walls with poster size blow ups of the portraits. Some of these photos are on the gallery of my website: www.jennifershahade.com.

MMM: You've recieved a fair bit of attention in the past about the issue of being a "pretty girl that happens to play ches." (Bust). You spoke out against the questionable World Chess Beauty Contest, yet you look pretty playful, perhaps even coy, in the cover photo?

JS: The Chess Bitch cover is supposed to be funny, glamorous and to encourage people to pick up the book. Chess still has a stodgy reputation in some circles so the cover can help nix that. Before I did chess, I was interested in acting and I've always been something of an exhibitionist. For instance, I love it when a crowd of people gathers to watch the final tense minutes of one of my games. Still,I wasn't initially comfortable with the idea of using a photo of me on the cover of Chess Bitch—primarily because the book is not only about my life and ideas, but also dozens of other female champions. However, I was convinced because the pink photo is so perfectly suited to the book's title, style and theme that the chess world is much sexier and funnier than people might expect!

To me, the main reason the World Chess Beauty Contest is offensive is because the women are being rated by top male players on the basis of their appearances. I find this potentially hurtful, humiliating and also regressive. they're just competing over their looks, no longer over ideas and across the chessboard. If it was just a well designed gallery of beautiful female players, I'd have fewer problems with it. (I talk about this issue in my book at length, on a chapter called "European Divas", which profiles young, beautiful European champions such as Grandmasters Antoaneta Stefanova and Alexandra Kosteniuk, who have very different views about promoting chess through their looks.)

MMM: How much input did you have in the final look of the book, what was the process?

JS: I had a lot of input—happily, my publishers valued my opinions. I suggested using the pink photo. I also disliked the font of my name on the cover and they changed it.

Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport can be pre-ordered in Canada by clicking here, in the US from here, or directly from the publisher.

Speaking of chess... Anyone up for a game? Click here.