One of the 40 Women’s Grandmasters in the world, Irina Krush, is the only female American Chess Grandmaster. She was born on December 24, 1983, and has made multiple milestones within her chess career including being an eight-time US Women’s Champion. She started learning at age 5 and has been playing ever since. At the age of 5, her family moved to New York where she grew up. At just 14 years old, she won the US Women’s Chess Championship. Her FIDE rating is 2432 making her a Grandmaster and also a Women’s Grandmaster.
I was lucky enough to ask her a few questions about her chess career, personal life, and any advice that she would give.
How did you first start playing chess? How old were you and how popular was it?
Krush: My dad began teaching me when we were emigrating from the Soviet Union in 1988. We spent some time in Austria and Italy on our way to the US (typical route for Soviet-Jewish emigration back then), and there wasn’t much to do, so he began teaching me. We arrived in the US shortly after my fifth birthday. Was chess popular back then…well, school chess clubs weren’t so much of a thing as they are now. There were definitely no other kids playing chess in my elementary school. But NYC was still a chess hub with the Marshall and Manhattan Chess Clubs, and I was playing scholastic tournaments at the Hunter School back then (they still run those tournaments today!).
What are the things you love most about chess?
Krush: The logic, the beauty, the problem-solving aspects of it. While you’re at the board, you’re immersed in solving problems, and there is no room in your mind for anything else…in that way, chess is a very “old school” activity. There aren’t so many things you can do anymore that require no distractions, total silence and concentration over many hours. And of course chess is a great way to build character and learn many useful skills that can be applied to life.
Were there many girls/women playing chess when you were growing up? How have you felt as one of the few high-level female chess players? Have you ever felt discriminated against? Do you have any specific stories where you felt uncomfortable as a women’s chess player?
Krush: No, there weren’t many girls playing chess when I was growing up, but I had a very positive experience with my journey in chess. I made friends with the boys, and even when I was little, I would talk to the adults at the chess tournaments. Chess is a very unifying game; the skill level is way more important than gender or age. But I think it also helped that I was good from a young age, and so I wasn’t just a little girl, I was a little girl that was good at chess. I can recall lots of instances of support from older (male) people in the chess world, but nothing negative related to being a girl. I know there’s a variety of experiences on this question, but I am always happy to put my story out there, so people don’t automatically assume that just because chess is a male-dominated sport, that women must have negative experiences upon entering it.
What are some of the biggest achievements you are most proud of?
Krush: Becoming the first American woman to get the Grandmaster title, for sure. And the eight US Women’s titles weren’t so easy, either 🙂
Have you mentored many women chess players? Do you think there are stereotypes of women in chess and stereotypes of chess players in general? Do you think these stereotypes are true?
Krush: I teach a good number of young girls, various levels/ages. So that’s the main way I am sharing my experiences, currently. Although I have just started my YouTube channel, eventually I will start to have a larger female audience. The stereotype of chess players in general is that they’re eccentric (that’s true), smart (I would say sure, chess develops the mind). Hopefully, the old stereotype of chess as “nerdy” is a thing of the past—I mean, look at Magnus Carlsen—he’s very fit, sporty, did modeling campaigns for G-star, etc. There are probably too few women in chess for stereotypes about women in chess to have developed 🙂 From my experience, women in chess are strong women—that’s what it takes to be the minority in something, to walk a path that few people around you are walking, to be fine being on your own. The process of playing chess itself, you are on your own, in your head, for hours, day after day (tournaments can last up a couple weeks these days). Someone who is used to being on their own and having no one to help them is going to develop a strong character 🙂
Who were your chess coaches?
Krush: My first teacher was my dad! He got me to about 1800 level. Then he found me other teachers; the most important who helped me get to the level where I won my first US Women’s Championship was Mikhail Trosman. I worked with him from ages nine to fourteen, so that was a really huge path we covered. Once I was at the IM level, I got my first grandmaster coach, GM Giorgi Kacheishvili. We worked together for a year, but then he went back to his home country of Georgia, and we resumed working together ten years later; he helped me get the grandmaster title and at pretty much every major event I’ve played in since 2010.
Can you tell me about your chess experience in high school? Were you active in your high school chess club?
Krush: When I was in HS, I was already very into my chess career; I won my first US Women’s Championship when I was 14; I think it was the beginning of tenth grade. I also played my first Olympiad for the US Team that year. So, once I started having those kinds of results, I started to focus more on chess; my dad was able to arrange a kind of independent study for me, where I didn’t have to attend school all the time, just come in to take tests, etc. I didn’t spend much time in school physically in 11th-12th grades, but I did travel a lot in those days; I remember going to a bunch of tournaments in England, Faroe Islands, China, etc. It was a productive time for my chess. I did play for my HS chess team at the Nationals, but ironically, not very successfully. I’d mess up a game (that’s all it took-one game), and then our team would miss being National Champions by tiebreaks or a half point.
What is your current typical day like? Do you play in a lot of tournaments now? Are there any events you are preparing for at present?
Krush: A one hour walk is likely to be part of my day; it’s something I’ve been doing now for 2.5 years. Usually, some kind of Pilates-type of exercises at home as well. I spend a lot more time on my health now after having covid in March 2020. Lessons (with my students) starting from the afternoon. These are the basics of my routine, but if I have a tournament coming up, I will also start allocating time to prepare for it. I don’t play as much as I used to, but I still play the big tournaments (pretty much any event at the Saint Louis Chess Club), Olympiads, etc. I have the American Cup coming up in March, Cairns Cup in June, and also the World Cup in July. So, it’ll be a pretty busy year.
What advice would you give to young people and young girls/women on ways to succeed in chess?
Krush: To succeed in chess, you have to love chess and want to spend a lot of time on it. It takes a big commitment from a young age to get to the very top levels, but it’s not like you only benefit from chess by getting to World Champion caliber. As long as you enjoy it, any investment into chess is an investment into yourself; you will be able to take those skills and apply them in many places in your life.
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