The sexy Russian model, 23, crowned the new Queen of Chess:
'Beauty and brains CAN go together'
A sexy Russian Grandmaster and model has been crowned Queen of Chess after winning the world chess championship.
Combining beauty and brains, glamorous 23-year-old Alexandra Kosteniuk overcame her baby's premature birth early last year, to win the diamond-studded crown at the Championships held in Russia.
The sultry chess prodigy, whose motto is "beauty and intelligence can go together" has worked as a swimsuit and catwalk model to raise the profile of the sport.
She sells semi-naked pictures of herself, has made a 36-minute video showing her "doing her exercises on Miami beach", and has appeared in a film in Russia.
She won the Women's World Chess Championship 2008 yesterday, beating the Chinese prodigy Hou Yifan in the final.
The triumph is the culmination of years of work by Kosteniuk to give the game a sexy new image which has seen her wow the sport's old guard and attract an army of young fans.
Almost single-handedly she has done much to dispel the image of chess as a game for bookish, tweed jacket-wearing types, or ice cold intellectual geniuses stooped at their boards.
A Grandmaster at 14, she trained by playing games blindfold at the age of five.
