Elizabeth Shaughnessy (born 1937) is an Irish-American

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player and trainer who has regularly represented the national team at the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

. She has lived in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

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for more than 30 years. By profession, she is a trained

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, having completed a 6-year course at the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

, University College Dublin. For several years she practiced architecture in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

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and

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, before marrying and moving to California. Shaughnessy, a former Irish Women's Chess Champion, runs the Berkeley Chess School which teaches chess in schools throughout the Bay Area and holds chess camps in the summer. She was twice elected to the Berkeley

School Board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...

and is a pioneer in chess activism in California State Curriculum.

References

California Chess Hall of Fame bio
American female chess players American chess players Irish female chess players Irish chess players Living people 1937 births Irish emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women Chess players from Berkeley, California 20th-century American sportswomen 20th-century Irish sportswomen Chess Olympiad competitors Alumni of the National University of Ireland {{Ireland-chess-bio-stub