Fully clothed, before I go any further. If you're still reading, there's an article with Alexandra Kosteniuk in the May issue of Penthouse, a famous American porn mag. (If you read Penthouse for the articles I read Foreign Affairs for the pictures.) Creatively titled "All the Right Moves: Chess Hottie Alexandra Kosteniuk," it consists of an interview with such enlightenment as "for mental activity, you need to be in very good shape -- to be able to play chess for five, six hours." Yes, there are pictures. Not naked. She'll be the only woman in the magazine whose only silicon aid is Fritz. [Thanks to Topkfe and others]
There, you now have an excuse to go buy Penthouse for the first time since you were 19. You're welcome. (Bonus: the "Forum" letters are totally made up. Sorry.) You can put it next to your copy of the Playboy magazine with a Topalov interview.
Didn't Fischer do an interview for Playboy in 1973?
But silicon is a metalloid in the periodic table. What do the other girls in Penthouse use it for, that Alexandra Kosteniuk doesn't? Unlike silicone perhaps, which is a polymer, and sometimes used in breast implants. Admittedly, silicone contains silicon atoms, but silicon and silicone have vastly different physical properties. Just like the oxygen atoms in silicone don't have much to do with the oxygen we breathe.
Yes, I know; Way to spoil a good joke, but the nerd in me couldn't be stopped. :-(
Ok Alexandra is a nice ,sweet girl -i definetely would date her- but...no she is not penthouse calibre. So no big deal he is full clothed. Have you not already noticed it guys? The true sex symbol of chess, the most beautiful,extraordinary charming is Almira!!!
I have made to her many marriage proposals through this blog...but no response. I guess she doesnt surf in your site Mig ;-)
Ok, lets get serious now. What i find a very attractive personality characteristic to someone is the multidimensionality. So it nice to see a smart and educated woman who at the same time takes care her appearance. Or an athlete who manages to be competitive in his sport but at the same time he can speak eloquently at an interview or/and be a successful parent etc.
In contrast i cant stand people like Fisher who can be extraordinary good in something (eg chess) but at the some time idiot in everything else..As far as this characteristic is concerned, modern elite chessplayers give a disappointing picture (with the exception of Kasparov). Their interviews usually are boring and meaningless, their non-chess activities minimal and of course except of their games they pose no interesting. Of course as you can understand this monolithic behaviour damages the public image of our sport.
So i will end this post congatulating Almira and Alexandra ladies for protecting the flower of femineity from the dry winds of competitive chess!
Hmm. I'd have thought Maria Manakova a more likely candidate for Penthouse, but she's probably not sufficiently well-known in the West (her Russian article headlined "I like to eat elephants!" was a real screamer, though).
I haven't seen a Penthouse for decades. Is it really "porn"? I recall it as racier than Playboy, but pretty soft-core.
Many years ago, I read a funny article by an aspiring female author who described her tribulations in earning a buck by writing. One of her gigs had been penning the fake "Penthouse Forum" letters!
So what else is new. Now which male gm dares to do an interview with Playgirl - clothed or not - _that's_ what I want to know. ;) :D
Chess hottie? Did I just read what I just read? Kramnik, Anand, take notes on chess promotion - this is how it's done. No stupid chat sessions, simuls, watches, or, Kasparov forbid, matches against computers.
As for male chessplayers in women's magazines, I wouldn't be too surprised to find an interview with Morozevich in Playgirl... Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised by anything when it comes from Morozevich.
Off topic, but Howard Goldowsky's April Fools article on chesscafe.com was quite caustic.
Daniel Pomerleano
http://www.olympicchesscamp.com
Thanks for the excuse to buy Penthouse. I still think I'll get flak from my wife though if I pick it up! ;-)
Hey, Daniel,
Thanks for the plug. Caustic is a good word! Some people might find it funny while others might find it politically incorrect, but who cares -- it's all in fun.
Now, do I bring home the May issue of Penthouse tonight? [long thought.....] Yes! Finally an excuse!
(Hey, it's also the 2006 Baseball Preview issue, a double incentive.)
Howard
Yeah, i think i share Christos koutsabelas´s view, at least Almira looks very beautiful on pictures, but it seems to me she isn´t playing very well lately and on new pictures she looks like she doesn´t get enough sleep
Disgusting. Pornography is an evil that should be fought on all fronts, not assisted with the lame excuse that it might be good for a certain board game or another. (Not that I think it is, I think it's quite obviously dragging the reputation of the game in the mud.)
I seem to remember a few (many) years ago Yasser appeared in Cosmo.
acirce -
I'm in favor of bringing back the corset, bonnet, and possibly chastity belt.
I can't wait to see a pictoral spread of Peter Leko wearing nothing but his trademark argyle boxer shorts and argyle socks--not.
Actually I think I coined a new phrase for suggestive picts of hottie (female) chessplayers: chesscake photos. Get it? Some day they'll quote me.
You can say anything you want about Alexandra, sure, she is a great chess player, etc, but she is also riding the ego wave all the way to the shore. She has a pleasant face, but she is no beauty (when compared to the average). Alexandra is no different than any other female who uses her looks as a stepping stone to riches and fame (other than the fact that she DOES have a beautiful, well developed brain, and she can chew gum and walk at the same time).
Oh, and Bobby Fischer is as good at ANYTHING he chooses to persue as he is at chess. If anyone knew anything at all about mental illness, they would know that Bobby Fischer has a severe chemical imbalance that is at the very root of his anti-social behavior. If those around him could have forced him into treatment many years ago, there is no telling what changes he would have brought to chess. He would most likely be the only GM in history to have an ELO rating over 3000. There is no doubt about it. His IQ was at least 20 points higher than any other chess GM before or since, save for Morphy. So before you go touting the brilliancy of Kasparov (who is a political wannabe and is very stupid in other areas), just remember that what the world did to Bobby Fischer is a crime against humanity. I know because I had a chemical imbalance that almost cost me my life. After someone who cared enough forced me into the proper doctor's office, I soon agreed to 'try' their cure...which changed my entire life.
Mr. Nix, your heated rant in an other wise light-hearted thread suggests it may be time for the next dose of your meds.
Kasparov "very stupid in other areas..." gimme a break.
It sounds like Nix would rather see Bobby Fischer in Playgirl than Kosteniuk in Penthouse.
Bobby has a severe chemical imbalance??
How do you know it? Hve you examined him...?
Bobby has an IQ 20 points higher than any GM??
How do you know it? (Some Fisher's interviews i have read, do not really suggest any kind of exceptional intelligence..)
Bobby is successful in anything he chooses to pursue...Give me an example...
As far as Garry is concerned, he recently visited Athens for a presentation related to Corporate Stategic Management. Academics, students and enterpreneurships followed his lecture. This alone is an example of the broad range of his skills.
"political wannabe" ...every successful politician at the start of his carreer was "wannabe". History will justify him or not.
What men call genius rarely includes intelligence.
--Jean Cocteau
Christos,
Garry Kasparov is a name. He can talk just about anything - people will listen. Doesn't mean he has anything particularily insightful to say (doen't mean the contrary either).
Same with Bill Gates, Clinton etc. etc. etc. If GAtes talks about helping Africa to get over AIDS, people listen. Not, because they presume he has anything to say on the subject they didn't know before, but simply because he's Bill Gates.
Kasparov is a great chess author, if nothing else, in addition to being a great player. And I've read that he is a very charismatic speaker, although I've only seen him giving unrehearsed interviews in English where that quality did not really shine through.
He may or may not be a good politician.
One thing is certain: he's not a great historian.
The 20-IQ point assertion is ridiculous. There are grandmasters who are research scholars (Huebner), professional mathematicians (Nunn), highly successful entrepreneurs (Norwood), etc. I seriously doubt Fischer is intellectually superior to all of them. As someone else said, his interviews do not really betray any form of vastly superior intelligence.
Albrecht,
i disagree . Kasparov is a name to us, chessplayers. Outside the chessworld -of course he is known, but not so much known in order to manage to gather the crowds without having nothing to say. So i conclude that he does have something to say.
Now that the groundbreaking news has finally sunk in, I think I should express my opinion on the matter:
I don't have anything against Kosteniuk giving interviews, or photo sessions for that matter, to such magazines, and I certainly wouldn't accuse her of "dragging the reputation of the game to the mud" - it's entirely up to her whether to be adverised in soft porn magazines or in National Geographic. But I don't see how is this article supposed to help chess. People who are likely to embrace chess can hardly be caught reading Penhouse. You never know, though.
Anyway, Kramnik should really think about it. He seems to be the right person for a cigar-and-whiskey interview. Just don't mention philosophy or art - these topics are known to repulse real men.
Erm, I need my pills, the fever's getting way too high.
Now that the groundbreaking news has finally sunk in, I think I should express my opinion on the matter:
I don't have anything against Kosteniuk giving interviews, or photo sessions for that matter, to such magazines, and I certainly wouldn't accuse her of "dragging the reputation of the game to the mud" - it's entirely up to her whether to be adverised in soft porn magazines or in National Geographic. But I don't see how is this article supposed to help chess. People who are likely to embrace chess can hardly be caught reading Penhouse. You never know, though.
Anyway, Kramnik should really think about it. He seems to be the right person for a cigar-and-whiskey interview. Just don't mention philosophy or art - these topics are known to repulse real men.
Erm, I need my pills. I mean, I'm discussing Kramnik's PR and real men... there's gotta be some fever.
Christos,
If Joschka Fischer is holding a lecture on foreign affair in PRinceton, the whole Who-is-Who of this University is present.
Do you know Joschka? I do, but that's because he happened to be our foreign minister for the last eight years. Do you think he has a gripping style? I _know_ he has. Do you think the masses come because he's got so damn smart things to say? Well, that's not why _I_ went to his speech at our university. Because the stuff he says is just what one would expect from an ex-foreign minister who's a green and a leftish pragmatist. But he's fun to listen to...
And, he's a "name"...
I do not believe Nunn ever was a "professional mathematician" in any capacity after obtaining his doctoral degree. Source: John Nunn, "Secrets of Grandmaster Chess".
Now Geeker, if you're going to provide sources you'll have to leave. That kind of responsible posting just isn't done here.
No doubt the amount of chess players familiar with Alexandra Kosteniuk boosted the sales of Penthouse for that month after seeing her name on the cover.
No, all chessplayers anyway buy penthouse.
While I was looking for a copy on ebay (by the time I got to the stores in Mid-May they were already had June up), I found a copy of Playboy - Nov 1989 - that had an 8 page interview with Garry Kasparov. Haven't read the entire thing yet though.
Interesting!
Interesting!