An Indianapolis radio station matched up two chessmasters on their website, but probably not the way you would think. They put a photo of each player and a button underneath labeled ‘Who’s Hotter?’.
Underneath the photos there is a description:
I chose Natalia and Alexandra because I love the combination of brains and beauty and these ladies have LOTS of both. Natalia Pogonina is a Russian chess Woman Grandmaster and member of the Russian chess Olympic team. And, Alexandra Kosteniuk is a Russian chess Grandmaster and the current Women’s World Chess Champion. Checkmate! - Matt from X103.
Watch Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk beat reigning World Chess Champion Vishy Anand at the most recent World Blitz Chess Championship. I enjoy watching speed chess because of the greater opportunity for an upset.
The 1st Mind Sports Games, a multi-game competition, is being held in Beijing. The events include chess, draughts (checkers), bridge, xiangqi and go. The event has attracted more than 3,000 players from 143 countries. There are thirty-five gold medals up for grabs.
China claimed their first gold metal yesterday when Wang Yang won the men’s rapid Xiangqi competition. Russian “Chess Queen” Alexandra Kosteniuk earned a gold metal in the women’s chess individual blitz competition.
She has received extra attention in the past for mixing Chess with modeling. She considers modeling a hobby that promotes chess.
I consider the fashion modelling only like a hobby, and I do it only to promote chess. I always insist that the magazines that invite me to model for them write an article about chess, I want more people to know about our wonderful game. There are practically no photo shoots where the readers don’t know that I am a chess player, it’s very important to me. I think the modelling helps chess as people find out that beauty and brains can go very well together.
