| Jessica Lauser | |
|---|---|
| Country |  United States |
| Born | 1980 (age 44) |
| FIDE rating | 1658 (November 2023) |
Jessica T. Lauser /LAWser/ is a visually-impaired American chess player and the current, 6-time reigning U.S. Blind Champion. [1] [2] She is the first-ever (and so far only) woman to win the annual national tournament for blind and visually-impaired players, which she did in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024. [3]
Born at just 24 weeks’ gestation, she experienced a well-known complication affecting micro-preemies, called retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, causing permanent, severe vision-loss during her first few months of life. [4] ROP (and subsequent cataracts) left Lauser effectively blind in one eye, with limited 20/600 acuity in the other.
First learning chess at age 7, Jessica became more involved with it at age 12, as a means to combat frequent teasing and bullying by classmates in junior high, soon earning her the moniker, “Chessica,” given by a teacher. [5] [6]
An avid player, Lauser began competing, first at age 12, but didn’t have access to regular tournaments until after she became an adult. Having since played 447 USCF-rated tournaments, so far, she presently enjoys national rankings on six Top Player lists in the U.S. (among exclusively fully-sighted women, as there is no list for the blind and visually impaired), while frequenting chess sites, like Chess.com, Lichess, and the FIDE Online Arena.
In November 2020, Jessica joined TeamUSA which took part in the 1st FIDE Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities. The team, having representatives of other disabilities besides blindness, was initially seeded 39th in this event, but finished tied for tenth in the world, placing sixteenth on tiebreaks. [7] In 2021, she took part in the 4th FIDE World Championship for People with Disabilities, held that November, online, as one of only four Americans—the only U.S. woman—to participate.
Her more recent international events include two IBCA (International Braille Chess Association) Pan-American Championships for the Blind & Visually Impaired, held in Mexico in 2022, and in Guatemala in 2023, where she won women’s silver and women’s gold, respectively, placing 4th overall in both events.
Since then, Jessica has gone on to compete in Mexico, again this year, winning first place among the women (and 4th overall, once more), in the 1st International Championship for Blind & Visually Impaired, held in Puebla, in September. Later competing overseas, she recently placed 5th overall at the 12th IBCA Individual Women’s World Championship held in Bangalore, India, before winning first place among the women (and 2nd overall), at the 12th IBCA Pan-American Championship held October 21st through 24th, in Salinas, Ecuador, where she became the only participant (out of 37 players) to earn dual distinctions in the tournament, receiving both a place medal and a trophy.
Lauser received dual Bachelor’s degrees from San Francisco State University and the University of Alaska Anchorage (in History and Russian, respectively), while working various jobs, predominantly clerical in nature. She is currently a general office clerk, residing in Missouri.
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