GMIrina Krush

Irina Krush was born in Odesa and moved to Brooklyn with her family in 1989. Her father taught her chess, and she won her first tournament at six. At seven she represented the United States at a girls' world youth championship. In 1998, at fourteen, she became the youngest U.S. women's champion. She ultimately won the national title eight times, most recently in 2020. In 1999 she helped guide the public's analysis in Kasparov versus the World, contributing an opening novelty adopted by the online team. She attended Edward R. Murrow High School and graduated from New York University in international relations in 2006. She helped the American women's team win Olympiad silver in 2004 and bronze in 2008. FIDE awarded her the grandmaster title in 2013 after results in New York, the Women's World Team Championship and Baku. In 2022 she won the inaugural women's American Cup. She also shared first place in that year's U.S. Women's Championship before losing the playoff to Jennifer Yu. Her writing has appeared in Chess Life and on the US Chess website.