Jennifer Shahade
American chess player, poker player and writer; US Women's Chess Champion in 2002 and 2004. Author of Chess Bitch, Play Like a Girl! and Thinking Sideways. Writes a newsletter on chess, poker and decision-making and co-hosts a chess YouTube channel with Fabiano Caruana.
Jennifer Shahade did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
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LLMs converge on popular patterns and themes rather than providing truly random results.
LLMs aren't trying to give you a random result, but a likely result, and their training data contains lots of sevens. So that's what you'll get. Again and again. Unless you prompt it not to.
jenshahade.substack.comSaid 23 Oct 2026This on korrents
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The value of chess is linked to its history and cannot be improved using first principles.
You can't use first principles to create a "better" chess. Its value is linked to its past.
jenshahade.substack.comSaid 10 Sept 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 12 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
LLMs converge on popular patterns and themes rather than providing truly random results.
LLMs aren't trying to give you a random result, but a likely result, and their training data contains lots of sevens. So that's what you'll get. Again and again. Unless you prompt it not to.
See the Sideways Move Said 23 Oct 2026
Using LLMs for brainstorming may lead to a narrow path of predictable ideas.
What feels like a random, organic process may be leading us down a narrow path of cool sounding numbers and ideas.
See the Sideways Move Said 23 Oct 2026
The value of divergence will increase as LLM-generated content becomes more prevalent.
As we are surrounded more and more with LLM generated text, images and ideas, the value of divergence will go up and up.
See the Sideways Move Said 23 Oct 2026
Show 9 more
The value of chess is linked to its history and cannot be improved using first principles.
You can't use first principles to create a "better" chess. Its value is linked to its past.
See the Sideways Move Said 10 Sept 2026
The reason Elon Musk dislikes chess is that the game is inherently tied to its history.
Instead, I think what irks Elon is that chess is so inherently tied to its history.
See the Sideways Move Said 10 Sept 2026
Changing significant rules midway through a stressful tournament is a bad idea.
The rationale was solid, but I disagree with changing significant rules midway through such a stressful tournament.
See the Sideways Move Said 7 Aug 2026
Days are numbered for "play it by trust" poker tournaments.
Days are numbered for "play it by trust"4 poker tournaments.
See the Sideways Move Said 7 Aug 2026
If the result replicates, intermediate poker players would likely benefit most from extra time.
If replicated with a larger sample size, I bet intermediate players would benefit most from extra time: they have knowledge and instincts, but need time to put all the pieces together.
See the Sideways Move Said 7 Aug 2026
It is difficult to judge or make a decision without understanding the values of the decision-maker.
In Thinking Sideways, I talk about how hard it is to judge, or make a decision, without an understanding of the values of the decision-maker.
See the Sideways Move Said 28 Jul 2026
Effective prediction or influence of a decision requires knowing the values of the decision-maker.
You can't predict or influence a decision effectively if you don't know the values of the decision-maker.
See the Sideways Move Said 28 Jul 2026
Erosion of trust can be more devastating than the act of cheating itself.
Erosion of trust can be more devastating than the cheating itself.
See the Sideways Move Said 16 Jun 2026
AI-generated text allows authors to produce work much faster, which may lead to a shorter shelf life for most titles.
"Authors" using AI-generated text can pump out works much faster, meaning a shorter shelf life for all but the most popular titles.
See the Sideways Move Said 16 Jun 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Where they publish
Site jennifershahade.com Her site: books, writing and links
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
Newsletter See the Sideways Move Essays on chess, poker, games and decision-making, with puzzles
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
Bluesky @jenshahade.bsky.social Her Bluesky posts
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
YouTube Jen Shahade & Fabi Chess videos and game analysis with Fabiano Caruana
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.