Chess Icon Shahade to Speak on Women in Chess

02:36PM / Friday, October 19, 2007Print Story | Email Story

Two-time U.S. women's chess champion and author of "Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport," Jennifer Shahade will give a lecture titled "Leveling the Chessboard: Women in Competitive Chess" on Sunday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. The event, which will be held at Griffin Hall, room 3, on the Williams College campus, is free and open to the public. Following the lecture, Shahade will play 20 simultaneous chess games in Griffin 4. Participants who give her the most challenge will receive signed copies of her book. Those interested in signing up should contact Trevor Murphy at tmurphy@williams.edu. Shahade, a Woman Grand Master who has an FIDE rating of 2322, is considered by some to be the strongest female player ever born and raised in the U.S. In 1998, she became the first female to win the U.S. Junior Open. She then proceeded to win the U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 2002 and 2004. Shahade's 2005 book, "Chess Bitch," is a controversial but critically acclaimed investigation of young women in chess today. The book profiles international chess players and explores trends and biases in the game. This Brooklyn-based chess expert is also the web editor in chief for the United States Chess Federation. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications. In 2005, the New York Times carried an op-ed by Shahade, in which she suggests that chess in the U.S. can and should be popularized in a manner similar to the mainstream presentation of poker, a game she also plays competitively. Shahade who holds a B.A. in comparative literature from NYU teaches chess and is involved in performance art.

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Williamstown Looking at How to Enforce Smoking Ban for Apartments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:24AM / Friday, January 09, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health and town health inspector are consulting with town counsel on how best to enforce a ban on smoking in apartment buildings passed by town meeting in May.

Although the meeting overwhelmingly approved the new bylaw, the Attorney General's Office in Boston took until December to rule that the restriction, believed to be the first of its kind in Massachusetts, complied with state law and precedent.

On Tuesday, Health Inspector Ruth Russell told the board at its monthly meeting that the town's lawyer told her to work on an enforcement policy.

She indicated that counsel said some things need to be clarified in the smoking ban.

"Their understanding was the bylaw was very clear when it came to enforcement of common areas but very unclear when it came to non-common areas [i.e., residents apartment units]," Russell said.

"That would be the issue. If we got complaints about smoking in someone's own unit, town counsel had concerns about how it would go forward. … Could we even get a warrant to inspect, and how do we go down that road."

Russell said she would investigate as soon as practical after a complaint is lodged, but given the ephemeral nature of smoke from cigarettes and discharges from vaping products, it would be difficult to prove violations of the ordinance.

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