A 23-year-old swimsuit model has been crowned the Queen of Chess after winning the world championship.
Russian Alexandra Kosteniuk took out the title after toppling Chinese prodigy Hou Yifan in the Women's World Chess Championship, the UK's Telegraph newspaper reports.
The raven-haired beauty, whose motto is "beauty and intelligence can go together", overcame the adversity of her baby's premature birth last year to take out the title.
"Modelling is not a job — it is a hobby, like reading books," Kosteniuk told the Telegraph.
"I want people to see there is a fun side to chess.
"It can be made as exciting as soccer or tennis."
Kosteniuk has worked as a catwalk and swimsuit model in an effort to raise the profile of the traditional game.
At 14, she became the youngest ever female Grandmaster, which was attributed to her training regime of playing games blindfolded.
By 17, she had made a name for herself on the world stage by becoming European champion and, at 20, had become just the tenth woman on the planet to become an International Grandmaster.
She credits her ability to her father Konstantin, who left his army job to train her full time when she was a youngster.
Kosteniuk is married to Diego Garces, 25 years her senior, and gave birth to the couple's first child Francesca Maria in April last year.
Front page
RSS Feed