Isolated Queens II: Top Streamers to Play BotezLive & US Chess Women Event

Alexandra Botez, Courtesy Botez

Jennifer Shahade

Photo courtesy Alexandra Kosteniuk

US Chess Women and BotezLive present Isolated Queens II on Saturday, May 2nd at 2 PM ET. The online girls and women's blitz tournament on chess.com will be hosted by the most popular female chess streamer in the World, WFM Alexandra Botez and Women's Program Director and two-time US Women's Chess Champion Jen Shahade. Jen and Alexandra will give educational commentary on the ten round Swiss event at twitch.tv/botezlive, which will also be hosted on twitch.tv/uschess and twitch.tv/jenshahade. The event will feature some of the best players in the World, as well as many talented youngsters and enthusiastic amateurs. $2000 in prizes will be awarded to the top streamers in the event, while all women can compete for bragging rights and the chance to play against some of the strongest women in the World.  Defending champion Alexandra "chessqueen" Kosteniuk is back to try to reclaim her title. The former World Champion and sensational blitz player will be streaming the event on twitch.tv/chessqueen. Songwriter and chess conceptual artist Juga of Jugamusica.com will also join the party on May 2nd. Juga's music video, "Isolated Pawn", is a perfect watch to get you in the mood for the event, and we will listen to it during the event commentary. Juga, who recently appeared on Ladies Knight, is also a new streamer, where she solves puzzles and sings karaoke on twitch.tv/jugamusica. Other confirmed players include:

1. Seven-time US Women's Champion Irina Krush, who was the runner-up in the previous edition, while she recovered from COVID-19. Follow her at https://www.twitch.tv/ikrush83/ 
2. Reigning US Women's Chess Champion Jennifer Yu, who has been streaming regularly on Twitch ever since the first edition of Isolated Queens and is now an affiliate. https://www.twitch.tv/jenniferryu
3. Carissa Yip (photo Ootes)
   IM Carissa Yip, who is a writer for ChessKid, a popular streamer at https://www.twitch.tv/carissayip  and has started a and has started a recent campaign, "Chess Against COVID" for COVID-19 relief through her channel
4. WGM and American Olympian Tatev Abrahamyan, who streams at twitch.tv/Tatev_A 
5. 2017 US Women's Champion Sabina Foisor, who has been streaming regularly at https://www.twitch.tv/sabinafoisor
6. German IM Elisabeth Paehtz, who hosts instructional YouTube and Twitch content, including lessons to help WFM Alexandra Botez make the Canadian Olympian team. https://www.twitch.tv/elisabethpaehtz
7. Writer and speaker Charlotte Clymer, who was our June guest on Ladies Knight. 
8. Popular streamer "Gold-Dust Tori", who was recently featured in Ben Johnson's "Adult Improver" series of the Perpetual Podcast. 
9. All four members of the US Amateur Team East team, Unruly Queens, who raised thousands of dollars for COVID-19 relief in their first event last weekend. They include WFM Ellen Wang, WIM Evelyn Zhu, WFM Martha Samadashvili, reigning Ruth Haring NGTOC Champion and WFM Yassamin Ehsani.
10. Kimmy Liu, a young artist, chessplayer and new streamer at https://www.twitch.tv/kimmyliu18/ 
11. Ivette Garcia Morales of Mexico, commentator and WIM who streams at jugando_ajedrez. 
12. Italian WFM Mariagrazia De Rosa who streams at https://www.twitch.tv/parthenopechess
13. Alice Dong, founder of Chess4Girls, Inc. and two-time champion of the SPGI will be streaming at https://www.twitch.tv/aldng
14. Several competitors in previous BotezLive matches, including WIM Chelsie Monica of Indonesia, WIM Lile Koridze of Georgia and Jesse February of South Africa. 

GM Irina Krush and WGM Sabina Foisor, Photo David Llada

Charlotte Clymer, Photo Tim Hanks

Ivette Garcia, Courtesy David Llada

  To join the event yourself, find tournament rules and instructions on how to join at tinyurl.com/isolatedqueens. Thanks to the generosity of Ian "Maprail" Silverstone, Richard and Barbara Schiffrin and Nikola Stojsin of Open Field Media for donating the $2000 prize fund, which will be rewarded to the top streamers in the event. The top three streamers will receive $700, $500 and $300 while top finishing streamers Under 2200, 1800 and 1400 will receive $165 each.   60% of onstream donations during this match will support online education and educational content geared toward girls and youth. The other 40% will go toward supporting future events and matches. Don't miss the official broadcast on twitch.tv/botezlive where we will shout out many of the top streams.  And look for the full post-event recap right here on CLO!