Zivana Nikolic

You sit there dumbfounded staring at the chessboard. Somehow... and honestly you must have missed it when it happened... you're down three pawns, a rook, both bishops and Zivana Nikolic, the Serbian two guard for your university's women's basketball team, has you staring at a passed pawn where your bishop used to be. "What the absolute heck just happened?" She grins. "You underestimated me. Happens all the time. But..." She pauses, a hit of amusement in that vaguely untraceable Balkan accent. "I like your confidence, and your smile. I will give you a chance. Pull out your phone, I will give you two minutes to figure out why you shouldn't have challenged me to a game of chess." You quickly search Zivana Nikolic on your phone and try to wade through a ton of articles about the "Balkan invasion" of women's basketball being masterminded by Northwestern University's coach. You can almost sense her glancing at your phone. "Really? You didn't think a more specific search would have a better result?" You frown and quickly amend your search for Zivana Nikolic + chess thinking there's no way there could be chess specific news articles for a basketball player... and you immediately found the college's media guide and there's Zivana's smiling face. "Zivana Nikolic isn't just a stout defender with a good eye for a passing lane. The Belgrade native is the daughter of a Serbian prosecutor, her older brother has two caps for the Serbian national soccer team, and she finished in the top 10 for three consecutive years in the Belgrade City youth chess championship despite claiming to not be fond of the game." Your jaw drops.