Do all of the USA women make their living through chess? That would be tutoring, and some commentating work (Shahade). I realize there isn't a whole lot of prize money in chess.

I think some of the elite female players have pretty well paying gigs as the teaching pros at some of these elite NYC high schools that have strong chess programs. It's a feather on the cap for the school to go deep in nationals, male or female team. The parents are quite willing to pony up some big bucks to have a Krush or Anna Z. come by for two hours, M-Th afternoons, and analyze some games. The school likes it, keeps them in the news. The parents like it, their kids get notoriety.

I'm thinking of private schools like Phillips Exeter, Xavier, some upper east side schools. The ritzy private high school sponsored by Fordham University--the high school is right alongside the 4 year college, a gated community within the somewhat turbulent bronx, quite exclusive. Horace Mann school, in Riverdale? The Bronx actually has a well-to-do area, believe it or not. They try to keep it a secret by posting NO TRESPASSING signs at all the entry streets into Riverdale. Keeps out the gangbangers and thieves but joggers and bicyclists seem to be welcome. I went strolling through with a gal friend one day, and no attack dogs were set upon us. We did get some dirty looks, however.

Oddly enough, I've never heard of any great chess teams coming out of brain power public NYC high schools like Bronx Science, or Stuyvesant High. Those school have gifted, motivated kids (you attempt to test into these schools). Perhaps becaue there is no tuition there is no money to bring in a Joel Benjamin or Irinal krush to tutor the chess players. Oh well....Hunter High is another powerhouse academic high school in NYC, a small percentage are accepted. I think Hunter has actually made a splash in chess, in some years. Maybe some of these elite public high schools are getting some pro bono help from NYC grandmasters, not sure.

Susan Polgar said "St. Louis is now the center of USA chess". I guess it is for her, as a wealthy benefactor is financing many chess activities. But, NYC will always be the true backbone of American chess. This is where the immigrants come to, from Europe and Russia, this is where an IM might be a street hustler in the park.

But two strong Stuyvesant alums besides Hess were....Larry Evans, and Andrew Soltis

<Oddly enough, I've never heard of any great chess teams coming out of brain power public NYC high schools like Bronx Science, or Stuyvesant High>

Stuyvesant has won more national HS chess championships than any other school in the country...By a pretty substantial margin, I think

That said, I think one of the Brooklyn public high schools does very well nationally, because their neighborhood has this large population of Baltic folks, Latvians Estonians and Lithuanians. Lotsa chess players. There was a book that came out a few years ago that followed this chess team for a year. I think it was called <Freaks and Geniuses, a year with the _______ Chess Team.> Pretty good. Newly minted GM alex Lenderman was one of the freaks/geniuses.

You went to Madison?

They have a pretty good chess tradition of their own

Madison won the nationals at least once

Not just our main rival in NYC, but in the nation

Madison won the nationals one year, then we won it the next

Hunter has traditionally always had strong chess team

They also had an established chess program and a paid chess coach when I was in high school

I think they were one of the first teams in NYC to have an established chess program

Hunter is also K-12, so they could get chessplayers early...And nurture them for a lot more years

At Stuyvesant, our 'faculty advisor' (not coach) was a teacher who was about 1900 ELO...Weaker than most of the students (certainly weaker than the students on the 'A' team)...And he didn't give chess lessons

Basically, we just had a lot of students who were interested in chess....There were usually at least half a dozen to a dozen kids in the cafeteria playing blitz during lunch hours or after school

Soviet/former Soviet emigration had started in NYC long before that...

And was still going strong...

The Madison powerhouse national championship team I mentioned? That had four masters?

One team member was a Russian emigre who had grown up in NYC

The others were all born in NYC...Among the team members were two black kids and one Asian

The ethnic makeup of the team was not proportional to Stuyvesant's demographics as a whole...Asian kids were the largest ethnic group in the school, outnumbering caucasians and other non-Asians by a pretty wide margin

I'm pretty sure that's still the case

<This is great stuff! Has anyone tried to write an article about this and publish it>

Someone wrote an article, 'A History of the National HS Chess Championships' some time ago...It might be online