Events
As late as 1950, many chess clubs in America excluded women. The Marshall Chess Club in New York City was an exception, organizing the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship beginning in the late 1930s. Since the 1980s, the average rating of the players has increased. The Saint Louis Chess Club has organized the championship since 2009, with record-setting prizes. Drawing on archives and original interviews with the living U.S. Women’s Chess Champions, this book examines their careers with biographies, photos, and 171 annotated games, most of which are from the 60 championships between 1937 and 2020.
Dr. Alexey W. Root was the 1989 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion. Her eighth book, United States Women’s Chess Champions, 1937-2020, was published in June of 2022. Alexey is a lecturer at The University of Texas at Dallas, teaching online courses about chess in education. She is also the Chief Science Officer for the online learning platform Chessable.