The Field
Irina Krush
Irina Krush is an American chess Grandmaster. She is the first woman and only woman to earn the Grandmaster title while playing for the United States. Since earning the title of Grandmaster in 2013, she has entrenched herself as the figurehead of women’s chess in America. Krush had exceptional showings in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Chess Olympiads, as well as a gold-medal performance in the 2013 Women’s World Team Championship. She is an eight time U.S Women’s Chess Champion, winning the title in 1998, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2020. Because of her incredible chess career, Krush has been invited to all editions of the Cairns Cup thus far, an elite women’s tournament at the Saint Louis Chess Club.
Anna Zatonskih
Anna Zatonskih is an American chess International Master. Born in Ukraine in 1978, She learned chess at the age of five. She won the Ukrainian Women's Championship in 2001, represented Ukraine in two Women's Chess Olympiads (2000, 2002) and in two Women's European Team Championships (1999, 2001). In 2003, she immigrated to the U.S., and has since been a dominant force on the U.S. women’s chess scene. Zatonskih is a four time U.S. Women’s Champion, winning the tournament in 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2011.
Ashritha Eswaran
Ashritha learned to play chess at the age of 7. At 13, she became a national master under the training of Bulgarian Grandmaster Dejan Bojkov at the NorCal House of Chess. In 2015, she took first place in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship with a score of 6.5/9. The very next day, she flew to Colombia for the 2015 Pan-American Youth Chess Championship where she earned bronze through a tie-break. She has played in the World Youth Championships four times from 2012-2015, and the 2020 US Women’s Championship will be her fourth appearance in her chess career.
Currently, she is a junior studying at University of California, Berkeley and is majoring in Applied Mathematics and Data Science. She is also the current co-president at the chess club at Berkeley and is a data science enthusiast. Her hobbies include playing the piano, painting, and singing.
Nazi Paikidze
Paikidze was born in Irkutsk, Russia and has been playing chess since she was four years old. Even at an early age, it was clear Paikidze would soon become a powerhouse player. Raised in Tbilisi, Georgia, Paikidze quickly collected prolific wins at the highest levels of international youth chess play. By the time she was 16, Paikidze had won four European Youth Chess Championships and medaled in the World Youth Chess Championship an astounding six times, including two gold-medal finishes. In 2006, Paikidze moved with her family to Moscow, Russia, which allowed her to participate in Russian tournaments. While she continued to represent Georgia in international events, she seized the initiative to combat some of Russia’s best, winning both the Moscow Women’s Championship and the Moscow’s Open Women Tournament, and finishing fourth in the Russian Women’s Chess Championship. With continuous strong play, Nazi achieved her Woman Grandmaster title in 2010 and her International Master title in 2012. Nazi transferred to the USCF in November 2016 after moving to the U.S. and is currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2016, she started teaching lessons on ChessUniversity.com's Prodigy Program chess course.
Begim Tokhirjonova
Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova is a American chess Woman Grandmaster. She was born in Uzbekistan and has been playing chess since 5 years old. In 2009, she won triple gold at the Asian Girls' Championship, with gold medals in Classical, Rapid, and Blitz. In 2011, Gulrukhbegim won a bronze medal at the World Youth Chess Championship in the U12 section. In 2015, she won the Asian Girls Championship in the U20 section. She was the winner of the 2018 Uzbekistan Women Chess Championship. Gulrukhbegim played for Uzbekistan in 2 Women's Chess Olympiads (2016, 2018). In 2019, She moved to the U.S. and joined the chess team at University of Missouri. She is currently studying Business with an emphasis on Marketing.
Rochelle Wu
Rochelle started playing chess at the age of six. She won the gold medal in the 2016 World Cadet Chess Championship U10 Girls section. In 2017, Rochelle took first place in the National Girls Tournament of Champions. At the age of 11, she earned her National Master title. Rochelle earned the WIM title and a WGM norm by winning the 2018 North American Junior Girls Championship. In 2019, Rochelle broke the record for the youngest ever player to represent the US in an Olympiad or World Team and celebrated her 13th birthday at the World Team Championship in Kazakhstan. With her success as a young player, she has been invited to participate in the Young Stars program, a chess training program coached by Garry Kasparov.
Tatev Abrahamyan
Tatev Abrahamyan is an Armenian American chess Woman Grandmaster. She started playing chess at the age of eight, after her father took her to the Chess Olympiad games in 1996. She was soon playing competitively among the top players in her age group throughout Europe and eventually competed in five Olympiads, earning a bronze team medal for the United States in her first appearance. Tatev has also competed for the U.S. team at the Women’s World Team Championships.
Jennifer Yu
Jennifer Yu is an American Woman Grandmaster and FIDE Master. In 2014, Yu took home a gold medal at the World Youth Championship in the Girls U12 section. She was the first American girl to do so in 27 years. She has also won the National Girls Tournament of Champions three times in addition to a bronze medal at the 2017 World Junior Girl’s Championship. She has played for the US multiple times in team events. Yu competed on the U.S. Women’s Olympiad team for the first time in 2018 where she earned an individual bronze medal. In 2019, Yu became the US Women’s Champion by scoring 10/11 points at the US Women’s Championship and won the tournament by a wide margin. She is currently a student at Harvard.
Thalia Cervantes
Thalia Cervantes Landeiro is a 19 year-old Woman Grandmaster and FIDE Master originally from Cuba. She currently has one International Master Norm and just finished her freshman year at Saint Louis University.
Alice Lee
Alice Lee is an American chess FIDE Master and Woman International Master. She is a three-time gold medalist at the FIDE World Cadet and Youth Championships. She won the under-10 girls' division in 2019 (in person), the under-12 girls' division in 2020 (online), and the under-12 girls division in 2021 (both World Cup and Super Final). Lee became a US Chess national master at the age of 10. She won the under-18 girls' division of the 2021 North American Youth Championships for a direct WIM title. In 2022, Lee earned her FM title and an IM and WGM norm at the Southwest Class Championships. She finished 2nd place in the Women's section of the 2022 American Cup. This is her 3rd time participating in the U.S. Junior Girls Championship.
Ruiyang Yan
Ruiyang Yan is an American chess FIDE Master. Her accomplishments include 3rd in 2019 World Cadets, and participating in 3 U.S. Junior Girls' Championships. She received third place for the 2019 US Girls' Junior Championship, second place in the 2021 US Girls' Junior Championship and first place in the 2021 Ruth Haring National Open tournament.
Megan Lee
Megan Lee is a chess Woman International Master. She completed her BFA in Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design with a minor in Art History. Most recently, she won the 2022 and 2020 Washington State Championships and the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open. Other highlights include winning the 2013 North American Youth U18 Girls Championship and the 2009 Kasparov All-Girls Nationals Championship. Outside of chess, Megan runs two small businesses, an embroidery shop and a lifestyle brand, Snippet Studios. She also enjoys playing board games, skiing, skating, clam digging, and making things.
Sabina Foisor
Sabina is a Romanian-American chess player, born to a chess family with both her parents being International Masters. She learned to play chess at around 4 years old and soon after started competing in national and international competitions. She won numerous national titles in both Romanian and European championships in her age category. She was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster in 2007 and a year later she received a full scholarship to go to college in the United States. She holds a BA in Modern Language and Linguistics and has a Masters in Intercultural Communication from UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County). Starting with 2010, Sabina has been a part of USA's Women Olympic Chess Team at five consecutive Olympiads (2010-2018) and four Women's World Team Championships (2013-2019). Her biggest achievement to date is winning the US Women’s Championship in 2017. Aside from playing chess professionally, Sabina has been coaching players of all levels for the past nine years. In 2020, together with Grandmaster Elshan Moradiabadi, she co-authored the book : “Sherlock’s Method” which is meant as a working tool for club players who seek an overarching way to train themselves before tournaments.
Sophie Morris-Suzuki
Sophie Morris-Suzuki was a relatively late starter in chess who learned the rules at the age of 11. It didn't take long for Sophie to start playing in tournaments, and Sophie soon found competitive success. Sophie's first major achievement was taking second place in the U14 section of the 2016 All-Girls National Championship. The following year, Sophie won the 2017 New York Girls State Championship and the U18 section of the 2017 All-Girls National Championship. Sophie is a returning competitor from the 2018 and 2020 US Girls' Junior Championships. Outside of chess, Sophie is an avid music enthusiast and enjoys writing songs.