Partly wrapped in a fur coat that leaves very little to the imagination, Maria Manakova smiles suggestively at the camera.This 30-year-old female grandmaster has caused a minor sensation in the otherwise stuffy world of chess with a series of raunchy photo shoots for glossy magazines. ...
She was ranked No. 20 among the world's female players in the 1990s, but only recently began to exploit her looks. In the spring, she appeared on the cover of Russia's Speed magazine and this month's edition of Pro Sport features "artistic" shots of her in designer underwear.
In a recent interview, she poured scorn on female players in "dirty, baggy trousers," urging them to wear miniskirts instead to attract sponsors. "Enough of begging for money from businessmen and politicians who happen to fall in love with chess to their own misfortune," she argued. "It's time to work for this money, if not with behavior then at least with appearance.
Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova is the new Women's World Champion. ChessBase.com has a nice story.
She graciously gave much of the credit for her win to her first chess coach, her father: "I can say that he has played a great role in winning the World Champion’s Crown as well."
GM Kavalek's newest Washington Post column has annotated former U.S. Women's Champ Jennifer Shahade's upset of Estonian grandmaster Jaan Ehlvest, this year's World Open winner, in a recent New York Masters rapid tournament. Despite the upset win, the 2356-rated Shahade finished only with a 2-2 score, good for 9th of 19 players, still a respectable showing given the strength of the field. Here's a crosstable from the event.
The New York Masters web site has a brief bio page of Shahade, with a nice photo of her with pink (yes, pink) hair. Not a bad looker for the highest-rated native U.S. chess player.
New York Masters events are covered live on Chess.fm.
Judit Polgar's win over Sokolov from the Hoogeveen, Netherlands, October 2003 tournament attracted the attention of two local newspaper columnists, Lubosh Kavalek of the Washington Post and David Sands of the Washington Times. Both annotated the game.