NEW DELHI: For most of its history, American women’s chess had a very simple relationship with the Olympiad podium. It did not have one. Not once, in over four decades of trying, had the United States women’s team finished among the medals at chess’s biennial team championship.Then, in 2002, Susan Polgar switched her allegiance from Hungary to the United States. Two years later, after stepping away from top-level competition to raise her two sons, she sat down on Board 1 in Calvià, Mallorca, and dragged a young, unheralded American team to silver, second only to China and ahead of a Russian juggernaut that had ruled women’s chess for a generation.It was the first medal of any colour the country had ever won in the women’s category.Bronze followed in Dresden four years later, in 2008. And then, after a wait of 16 years that swallowed many careers, bronze again, this time in Budapest, at a tournament where India finally broke through for gold. Three medals across two decades somehow represented three different eras of American chess.The one name, however, that appears on the scoresheet every single time is that of Irina Krush, the first, and to this day the only, woman to earn the Grandmaster (GM) title while playing for the United States.“I was sort of the main player of my generation,” Krush, who is currently playing in her record-extending 13th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, said with a small, knowing smile during an exclusive interaction with TimesofIndia.com.
A little girl from Soviet Ukraine
The story does not begin in America. Krush was born in Odesa, in what was then Soviet Ukraine, and arrived in Brooklyn with her parents when she was five years old. Her father, an amateur player of real quality, taught her the moves.Her first tournament against adults followed when she was six, at the Manhattan Chess Club. She made her first appearance for the United States at the World Youth Championship in Poland at seven. By 11, she was already competing in the US Women’s Championship.At 14, in 1998, she won it. Still, almost three decades on, she remains the youngest champion in the event’s history.
A younger Irina Krush (Photo by Zeljka Malobabic)
Krush’s association with India is a long one too. She fondly recalls playing against a young chess prodigy, Koneru Humpy. In the last few years, her association with India has also included a new part of her profession in chess broadcasting and commentary at the Global Chess League (GCL), a league she participated in during its inaugural 2023 season in Dubai, on a roster built around Magnus Carlsen.
You don’t want to look like the fool on the team with Magnus.
GM Irina Krush
“It was a chance to play in the same team as Magnus, and it was like a very special opportunity,” Krush added. “I definitely thought that was like a highlight of my chess career.”But a highlight, in her telling, was never the same thing as a comfortable one. “It’s also — you feel the pressure, right? Because you don’t want to look like the fool on the team with Magnus,” she chuckled. “There are two sides to that coin. But overall, it was a very good experience.”She has not played in the league since. What she has done, for the next two seasons, is commentate on it, first in Mumbai and, more recently, in Bengaluru, watching from the other side of the glass.
The cost of commentary
This time, Krush arrived in India with the 46th Chess Olympiad bearing down on her. For more than two decades, the tournament has been the anchor of her competitive identity, and this year, the games in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, were set to begin just two days after her India schedule wrapped up.The commentary booth, for all it has given her, though, has eaten directly into the time she would otherwise have spent getting ready for it.Asked plainly whether she had found any window to play or prepare between broadcasts, she replied: “So far, no. It’s only been a few days, but it’s been so busy. Today, we were asked to appear at the golf thing. So I had to get up at 7:45 in the morning, go to that. Then I had another nap, and then I just had to go here. So it’s a long day. And honestly, I have not had a chance to do much chess for myself at all.”It is a trade she has made with her eyes open, not a complaint dressed up as one. She had spent the months before India trying to bank the form the broadcast schedule was about to interrupt.“I’ve spent the summer playing tournaments, and I just finished a tournament the day before I came here,” she told this website. “There’s definitely been an attempt to try to get myself into good playing condition.”And on the final day, when the commentators were felicitated on the main stage for being the voice of the league, Krush, who became a grandmaster in 2013, barely lingered after the ceremony. She left the arena almost immediately, the next challenge, the Samarkand Olympiad, already waiting.For someone who has spent much of her career playing chess at the highest level, commentary came without formal preparation.“I never did anything special. I don’t have any training in commentary,” she said. “But, you know, it comes kind of naturally for me to talk about chess. It’s something that’s very easy to talk about and get excited about. I like to watch chess.”
GM Irina Krush’s prep before commentating on a game (Photo by Jyotirmoy Halde for TimesofIndia.com)
Her preparation for the booth is less about learning how to commentate and more about doing what she has always done with chess: looking closely at the players and their games.“You definitely try to do some preparation,” she said. “So, you have ways to fill up, you know, give some context for what’s happening. How are the players doing? So, it just requires a little bit of research, you know, to come up with those nuggets that people will find interesting.”But even that preparation changes as a tournament begins to take shape. “At the beginning, you’re doing more general research,” she further noted. “And after the players have started playing against each other, then you’re already more interested in what’s happening in this tournament. What’s the recent results? Not like what happened one year ago in their other matchups.”“As the tournament continues, you start focussing more. What happened in the first half? How do they do again? How are they overall doing in the tournament?” Krush continued.“The tournament itself becomes more of a focus than their history before. Because it’s all now about, like, now you’ve already seen their recent form. So, you focus more on that. Looking at the games is the best part.”The difficulty comes when the chess stops. “The only challenge is, like, maybe sometimes you gotta fill up the time,” she admitted. “You know, the games are over. For me, it’s like, okay, just commenting on the things that are not as exciting for me. You know, just figuring out what to say.“But when we’re on the chess, it’s the easiest.”
Eyes on Olympiad
The United States are among the leading teams at the Women’s Chess Olympiad, with a squad featuring Carissa Yip, Alice Lee, Rose Atwell and Tatev Abrahamyan, alongside the most experienced Irina Krush.“It’s like a very nice mix of the young players who are really kind of, they’re not even at their peak yet necessarily, but they’re definitely rising,” Krush said. “And then, okay, like there’s me and Tatev, and we kind of bring a lot of experience to the team. Playing for like 20 years or more for the Olympiad.”
Irina Krush (Photo by Photo by Lennart Ootes)
That depth, the 42-year-old says, is the product of a sport that barely resembles the one she came up in.“It’s much more competitive (now). There’s more incentive to play chess, more opportunities to play,” the eight-time US women’s champion shared. “We didn’t have the kinds of prizes we have at the US championships 25 years ago. We didn’t have an American Cup. We didn’t have a Cairns Cup. We didn’t have the Cairns Queen chess award for the next woman who’s gonna become a grandmaster in America.”The dividend, she adds, is visible in the players coming up behind her now.“A whole generation of strong girls coming up, with Carissa and Alice being kind of the main ones, but also other young girls who are close to 2400 as well,” Krush acknowledged.In Uzbekistan, the US women’s team made a dream start, but its campaign soon lost momentum. A draw against Uzbekistan was followed by a defeat to India, leaving Krush’s team in 14th place in the rankings heading into the rest day.
Any secret sauce?
For someone who has now spent two seasons narrating other people’s games for a living, Krush is unsentimental about what the job actually requires.Asked what advice she would give someone hoping to follow her into a commentary booth, she does not reach for a formula.“Honestly, there’s just a lot of people who are doing it these days, and everyone brings their own special thing to it, right? So you have different styles. You could be like a top GM and then just start doing commentary. You could be like a different level enthusiast and do commentary,” she concluded, while instinctively running her tongue once again along the outside of her gum. “So I really don’t have any advice except I feel like anyone who loves chess and is pretty good at it can do it.”
