‘Jeopardy!’ Giant-Slayer Greg Shahade Has Tough Time After Beating Jamie Ding

(from left) 'Jeopardy!' contestants Alice Jiang, Greg Shahade, and Chris Argento, on April 28, 2026
Spoiler Alert
Jeopardy.com

Did giant-slayer Greg Shahade meet his match, or did he serve a checkmate to his Jeopardy! opponents? Shahade beat 31-game champion Jamie Ding on April 27. Now, he had a tough time during his second game.

Shahade, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, went into his second game with a total of $33,000. On April 28, the chess master faced off against Chris Argento, from Bayonne, New Jersey, and Alice Jiang, from Redwood City, California. Warning: Spoilers for the April 27 episode of Jeopardy! ahead.

“Yesterday, our champion, Greg Shahade, added ‘Jeopardy! giant-killer’ to his game-playing resume, as it was checkmate for 31-game champion, Jamie Ding,” host Ken Jennings said. “Greg found, and responded correctly to all three Daily Doubles yesterday, adding $16,800 to his score on those three clues alone, and that catapulted him to a runaway win.”

“Jamie had certainly seemed unstoppable for weeks, but it just goes to show, anything can happen on the Alex Trebek stage,” he said.

Shahade had the lead of $2,200 when he found the Daily Double on clue 12, where he wagered all of his money. The clue in “Repetitive Stress” was “Anaphora is the repetition of the start of a clause ending in different ways, like these 4 words in an Aug. 28, 1963 speech in D.C.”

The game show contestant shrugged and guessed “What is I Have a Dream?” and he was right. This gave him $4,400.

By the end of the round, Shahade’s opponents didn’t leave him with a runaway. He had $7,600. Argento, a high school teacher, was in second place with $3,600. Jiang, a student, had $2,800.

Shahade found the first Daily Double in Double Jeopardy on clue two. With $8,200 in his bank, he wagered $6,000.

The clue in “O Captain, My Captain” was, “A national hero as an Austrian sub captain during WWI, he’d later gain more fame after marrying a woman named Maria.” Shahade stared at the clue and shrugged.

The correct response was Georg von Trapp, the real-life captain from The Sound of Music. Shahade dropped to third place with $2,200.

He found the last DD on clue five. Shahade had $4,200 and wagered all of it. In “Business History,” the clue read, “This co. was born in 1911, after 4 years of talks among the Intl. Time Recording Co., Computing Scale Co. & Tabulating Machine Co.”

“What?” he asked when looking at the clue. “What’s IBM?” he guessed. Shahade was right and doubled up to $8,400, retaking the lead.

But Argento didn’t let Shahade have a runaway. When he had over $10,000, Argento had $9,600.

By the end of the round, Shahade had the lead with $12,400. Argento was not too far behind with $10,800. Jiang was in third place with $6,000.

“Playwrights” was the Final Jeopardy category. The clue was “When she was 7, her family moved to the mostly white Chicago neighborhood of Woodlawn, leading to attacks & a Supreme Court case.” All three contestants correctly responded with Lorraine Hansbury, so it all came down to wagers.

Jiang wagered $3,200, giving her a final total of $9,200. Argento’s wager was $1,601, making his total $12,401. Shahade made a big wager of $9,201, giving him a total of $21,601.

Shahade won his second game and has a two-day total of $54,601. He will return on April 29.

Jeopardy!, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock




Conversation9 Comments

Please read the TV Insider Community Guidelines.

Register or sign in to join the conversation.

  1. J

    Jena

    This new champion either guesses an awful lot (and is pretty good at it), or he's punking everyone and acting like he's unsure of every answer.

    1. M

      Molly

      Maybe he is a 'visual' thinker --- he is 'looking' through all the facts he has crammed in his mind like we might look through a rolodex or files.....

      1. Y

        yormc

        I agree that strong chess players can be visual, analytical and/or abstract thinkers. Oddly, the skills he's developed as a chess player weren't very transferable for him since there wasn't anything unique about his performances so far.

        Might as well as continue competing in pro. chess, which is his main specialty

    2. Y

      yormc

      Either could be possible. Personally, I think he's just lucky but is mostly unprepared in his sudden transition from chess to trivia.

    3. N

      No Thanks

      This guy is annoying. I’m waiting until he loses before i watch again.

      1. J

        Jena

        Lol, that's how I felt about the previous champion.

  2. Y

    yormc

    OK, consider today another lucky day for him, including his landing on the DDs. However, I noticed he didn't really have a strategy for that; he followed the same pattern as Jamie's. Again, he was not confident at playing as he tried too hard to rote memorize.

    Also, after revisiting another post about him from yesterday, I find it unbelievable that he's been in touch with former champ Ben Chan. Details like these expose how quiz-related game show contestants are familiar acquaintances in a small, common world just like the elite of circle of known billionaires who the public may not realize are actually familiar with one another.

    1. M

      Molly

      My mother was a nurse. Funny how many 'medical' people she was acquainted with.

  3. M

    Mytri

    As much as I disliked Jamie, unfortunately I find this one completely repugnant. He knew he was going to be on tv, surely he has some decent clothes. I thought Jeopardy watched how the contestants dressed. He needs better glasses. The squinting is already getting old. Quit presenting an “aw shucks” attitude every time he’s gets an answer correct. Hopefully, he’ll be gone soon!!!!!!