Ladies Knight Podcast with U.S. Women's Champion Jennifer Yu

Jen and Jen, Photo Eric Rosen

Jennifer Yu jumping in the air with her US Women's Championship trophy. Photo Crystal Fuller

Our new U.S. Women's Chess Champion, 17-year-old Jennifer Yu appears on Ladies Knight to discuss her historic victory at the 2019 US Women's Championship in Saint Louis, MO. With her resounding 10/11 score, Yu became the first teenager since 2000 to capture the Women's Championship title and the second youngest champ in history. Yu and Shahade discuss her favorite games, her study techniques and hobbies from magic to running. Yu also explains why winning her final round game at the US Women's was so important, even though she had already clinched the title.  

Podcast (ladies-knight): Play in new window | Download | Subscribe by Email  Subscribe to Ladies Knight on Itunes here and on Android here.  Among Yu's accolades are earning a bronze medal at her first Olympiad, the 2018 edition in Batumi. She also boasts a gold medal from the 2014 World Youth Championship and three National Girls Tournament of Champions titles (clear first in 2016, the first time the event featured a 5K top prize). Yu is also the first female and youngest person ever to win the Virginia Closed Championship. As she reveals in the podcast, Yu's future ambitions lie largely with mixed gender competitions. You can follow her official instagram account @jenniferyuchess. In her conversation with Shahade, Yu also talks about the many players who inspired her, including the very first guest on Ladies Knight, Alexandra Botez, four-time U.S. Women's Champion Anna Zatonskih and Alice Dong, who was profiled in the New York Times for her work mentoring young girls. Yu also pointed out that strong girls rise together and praised her friends for "keeping her in line."

There has been a significant increase (in the ratings of young women.) It's kind of like sibling rivalry, so if one of us does good, we support them, but we also want to do good too....we're all great friends, but we kind of keep each other in line.

Jennifer Yu (far right) with friends outside the Saint Louis Chess Club: 2018 US Women's runner-up Annie Wang, 2016 Girls Junior Champ Emily Nguyen and US Junior Girls Champ and 2017 Cadet Champ Carissa Yip

Jennifer Yu revealed that her favorite game was her penultimate victory against Anna Zatonskih, which clinched first place, and she was most prove of the most 17...Nc5, for steering the game into her own strengths.

[pgn] [Event "ch-USA w 2019"] [Site "Saint Louis USA"] [Date "2019.03.30"] [White "Zatonskih, A."] [Black "Yu, Jennifer"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D17"] [WhiteElo "2430"] [BlackElo "2273"] [PlyCount "66"] [EventDate "2019.03.18"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 Nbd7 7. Nxc4 Qc7 8. g3 e5 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Bf4 Nfd7 11. Bg2 f6 12. O-O Rd8 13. Qc1 Be6 14. Ne4 Bb4 15. Rd1 O-O 16. Rd4 a5 17. h4 Nc5 18. Rxd8 Qxd8 19. Nxc5 Bxc5 20. Nxe5 Bxf2+ 21. Kh2 fxe5 22. Bxe5 Bd4 23. Bf4 Qb6 24. Qc2 Bb3 25. Qc1 Qb4 26. Bd2 Qd6 27. Bf4 Qb4 28. Bd2 Qe7 29. Bc3 Be3 30. Qe1 Bf2 31. Qd2 Bxg3+ 32. Kxg3 Qc7+ 33. Kg4 Be6+ 0-1 [/pgn]

Tani and Jennifer Yu (photo Ootes)

Yu's historic victory was featured in the Washington Post. Jen has been busy since winning. Right after clinching, Yu took the time to play blitz with Tani Adewumi, the New York State K-3 Scholastic Champ. A few days upon her return to Virginia, she attended a Chess 4 Charity event to give a tandem simul and inspire youngsters. https://twitter.com/USChessWomen/status/1115609592573177857 Ladies Knight features music by the artist Juga, who went viral when her song, Oh Capablanca,dropped in the Fall of 2018. You can find more about Juga on https://www.jugamusica.com/    Find a full index of US Chess podcasts here. To support the podcast, subscribe, review and consider making a donation to advance our Women’s Programs at https://new.uschess.org/give/donate-online-women/. US Chess Sales has also recently unveiled a suite of new US Chess Women themed merchandise, which helps support US Chess Women.