Ladies Knight with Jen Shahade Featuring Alisa Melekhina– LK013

In the first anniversary episode of Ladies Knight, Jen Shahade interviews the multi-talented FM, entrepreneur, gold medalist, author and lawyer Alisa Melekhina. Jennifer talks to Alisa live in Philadelphia, where  both grew up, about a wide range of topics, from Alisa’s corporate chess league, to lessons behind her first book, “Reality Check: What the Ancient Gameof Chess Can Teach You About Success in Modern Competitive Settings.”

Alisa founded the Corporate Chess League in 2018 with Yuanling Yuan and Alex Wiener. Goldman-Sachs took down this year’s event, which was hosted for the second year in a row at Debevoise & Plimpton’s offices in Manhattan. Jen and Alisa talk about how events like the Corporate League can help with retention for adults, who may be too busy to play chess on the weekends, or who may even fear losing rating points due to the “K” for kids factor. Corporate Chess Leagues exist in other cities in the United States, including Saint Louis, as well as Washington State Corporate Chess League. The Chicago Industrial League, founded in 1957, also features team chess between Chicago area organizations.

Alisa herself had a strong showing at this year’s event as the board one MVP. She detailed one of her favorite games from the event, a victory in a pet-line of the c3-Sicilian.

Former US Women’s Champion Rusudan Goletiani of Deutsche-Bank was the League MVP, with a sizzling 10.5/12 performance.
You can find out more about Alisa on her website, twitter and Instagram. Find an excerpt of her book, Reality Check, on CLO and purchase it here.