Gender and Chess - The Ever-Changing, Never-Ending Question...

The Tussle in Turin!
June 10, 2006
By Jan Newton

There has been an update on Arianne Caoili since this article first appeared in 2002. At that time, Caoili was contemplating moving from the Phillipines due to an alleged lack of financial and training support from the chess establishment there. However, there is more to the story.

According to an abstracted article from the Sun-Herald by Ian Rogers dated July 14 (presumably 2002), Caoili was 15 when she scored her first IM norm at the Australian Masters Championship, also earning her WGM title. She finished third in that event against much more seasoned (and higher rated) male competitors - and scored an outstanding 8/11. Rogers noted "Caoili had defected from Australia to the Philippines as a pre-teen thanks to a generous support package from Manila". Doesn't exactly sound like the Phillipines chess establishment had been stingy with Caoili. Perhaps it was more a case of Caoili's handlers deciding to demand more after Caoili's excellent result at Melbourne - in effect, trying to hold-up the Phillipines chess establishment for more and better than what they were already receiving.

At her website Caoili writes that she quit chess at the age of 14 in 2002 to finish her education. Hmmm... This seems to me like a convenient re-write of recent history.

Little girls who are promising chessplayers grow up and become - well, some of them evidently aspire to being the Next Chess Sex Kitten. Skirting by on the fringes of the chess world on good looks and deteriorating chess skills, girls who go this way are interested in only one thing - securing money - as much money as possible - usually through hooking-up with an old lecher or a young promising chessplayer. And if they can garner some publicity during their amorous forays and make some money on their own while tarting about, so much the better.

I won't pretend not to be disappointed that Arianne Caoili has chosen the expedient path rather than battling to improve her position in the chess world. She admits as much when she writes at her website that she wants to "make a short comeback" to chess in 2006, after having quit playing competitive chess for four years. The fact is, there isn't much money to be had in professional chess, certainly not in women's chess, and being a woman, I know that we are, at the end of the day, eminently practical creatures. A woman has to take care of herself as best she can. Caoili has given up on chess, but what she lacks in dedication to the game she makes up for with a nubile body, a lovely face, and an exotic look. Caoili is a beauty (find some pictures here ). Well, there are worse things she could do for the next ten years than drive men crazy with desire - but please, at least learn to pretend to possessing a little class and a modicum of good manners.

Much to the titillation of editors everywhere, Caoili was the cause of a punches between two male chessplayers while at a nightclub during the recently concluded Chess Olympiad at Turin. Now, if Caoili was 45 and men were “duking it out” over her favors on a dance floor, THAT would be a story! But this website appeals to people of all ages, and so we must also report on the vagaries of often tasteless and clueless youngsters. The story has generated a TON of testosterone-filled comment (and snickering) at various message boards and blogs. Here's a link to the story .

Here's the article (just in case the link disappears, as they are wont to do after awhile on the internet):

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From: Daily Telegraph (as reported at on news.com.au)
Sexy moves sparked jealous chess brawl
By Steve Gee and Peter Gleeson
June 08, 2006

SHE is the Anna Kournikova of the chess world.

Australian chess beauty Arianne Caoili has sparked a jealous punch-up between rival international players, plunging the normally staid sport into the sort of controversy befitting the rough and tumble of football.

In a game where cool heads and emotional restraint reigns, chess hit the front pages of British newspapers after England's world No.4 Danny Gormally fought with Armenian world No.3 Levon Aronian and his teammates as the pair vied for the affections of 19-year-old Caoili.

As details emerged of the brawl at the World Chess Olympiad in Italy, the teenager's mother yesterday revealed Caoili was romantically involved with Aronian. "I don't know how serious it is but Aronian is a lovely gentleman and it (the brawl) would have been totally unprovoked," Annette Caoili said. She knew the British fellow but she is young and pretty and a lot of young men e-mail her and text her.

Maybe he (Gormally) just had a bad day. Arianne is a beautiful young girl who wants to make her mark. She loves salsa dancing and she was doing that when the incident occurred. It's a sexy dance. Maybe the other fellow got jealous.

The dust-up occurred at a party after competition on Sunday in Turin. Witnesses said the normally reserved and calculating Gormally suddenly lost his composure and lunged at Aronian after spotting the 23-year-old "energetically" dancing with Caoili, who he had been wooing after meeting her at an earlier tournament.

Stunned colleagues had to pull the 30-year-old Englishman off his rival, ending the duel in a stalemate. But Aronian's teammates exacted revenge when they spotted Gormally in a cafe the next day. Gormally fled Turin, missing the tournament's final days as his team finished 19th out of 150 countries. The Armenians took the title. The Briton, who faces a lengthy ban over the stoush, has refused to comment, saying: "It's personal and it's got nothing to do with you."

But England team captain Allan Beardsworth yesterday apologised to the Armenian team. "Danny seems to have punched or shoved Aronian for innocently dancing with a girl," Beardsworth said. "It is out of character for Danny. I think he'd had a drink too many. He liked Arianne and got jealous. I have spoken to several people and there is no doubt that Danny was the one in the wrong. Aronian is a lovely guy and at the very peak of his talent. He is treated like David Beckham at home, where chess is the national sport."

It is understood Gormally and Caoili, who lists "fine boys" and "getting up to no good" among her interests on her website, became acquainted at earlier chess tournaments and struck up an e-mail relationship.

Born in the Philippines, Brisbane-based Caoili was a child chess prodigy and aspires to be a singer.

British Chess Magazine editor John Saunders described Gormally as a nice but "argumentative" character who had been having a bad tournament. "Things do kick off at these parties from time to time," Mr Saunders said. "Chess is very stressful." It is obvious to any female who reads about the dance floor incident that Danny Gormally's actions were those of a man in love - and so he admitted today

It will be horrid if Gormally goes down in the annals of chess history as the "chess brawl man"; he has been a solid and steadfast player for England for years and deserves - he has earned - much better!

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(as published by The Age, theage.com.au)
I fell in love, says chess brawl man
Annabel Crabb, London June 11, 2006

HE RAISED the temperature of international chess last week when he punched out the world No. 3 for daring to salsa with his dream girl - Australian chess starlet Arianne Caoili. But British grandmaster Danny Gormally, back at home and ruing his actions, is thinking about chucking the game altogether. "I fell in love with her," he explained with disarming simplicity to The Sunday Age, in his first press interview.

Mr Gormally was speaking from Durham, where he has been evading the British press since his nightclub scuffle electrified the 2006 World Chess Olympiad in Turin. Mr Gormally, who, at 30, is ranked sixth in Britain, curses himself for throwing a punch at Armenian chess superstar Levon Aronian on the dance floor of the Turin nightclub Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Mr Aronian, who is ranked third in the world, was at the time engaged in a salsa routine with 19-year-old Ms Caoili, a Queenslander and Latin dance hobbyist. "Well, I went up to him and I punched him. Which is very embarrassing to me," Mr Gormally said.

"Basically, I hit him because I was jealous. Obviously, I've got problems with alcohol and anger, which I need to deal with. I was jealous because he was dancing with her maybe I was also a bit jealous because he's the world No. 3 and I'm the world number two hundred and something."

The British player was beaten up by Mr Aronian's colleagues the following day, before leaving the tournament voluntarily.

He has since spoken to Ms Caoili and apologised for his behaviour.

Mr Gormally said he wanted to set the record straight in Australia, where he feared Ms Caoili was being depicted as a temptress of the chequered board, who toyed with the hearts of men. "She's not my girlfriend. She told me that she had a boyfriend in Australia. I've never had any feelings from her that there was likely to be a relationship between us besides friendship. But it doesn't matter - sometimes you just fall in love with people, and that's what happened."

Mr Gormally, who turned professional when he was 19, met Ms Caoili 18 months ago and says she helped him beat his long-standing fear of flying. But now he is thinking of giving up chess-related travel.

The life of a grandmaster is demanding, but not particularly profitable, and circumstances oblige Mr Gormally to live with his parents.

"The chess world now ... I've just lost interest in it," he said. "There's a lot of egos, a lot of competitiveness. It just doesn't interest me. I've always been a very lazy person, and the problem with chess is that you have to be completely obsessive about it. You have to have the passion, but gradually I think I've lost it."

At 30, Danny Gormally is contemplating a chess career in ruins. Meanwhile, others are hearing the ring of the cash register - cha ching, cha ching...

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More reporting from "The Age"
Queens to marketing pawns - sex sells everything
Rachel Wells June 11, 2006

Chess firebrand Arianne Caoili is not the first to make a worthy pastime sizzle, writes Rachel Wells.

WHO said chess was dull? Or playing the violin? Or classical music?

The story of a glamorous Australian chess queen caught in the middle of a bust-up between two knights vying for her affection has gone a long way to making chess cool. But chess firebrand Arianne Caoili is not the first person to make a drab pastime sexy. Remember Vanessa Mae? Bond?

The world of marketing and advertising must be salivating over Ms Caoili's potential. "It is probably the best thing to have happened to this much-mocked pastime in a generation," wrote British reporter and chess fanatic, Stephen Moss, for the Guardian Online, of the scandal that saw English grandmaster, Danny Gormally, deck Armenian player and world No. 3 Levon Aronian at a nightclub during the World Chess Olympiad in Turin.

It is believed that Mr Gormally punched Mr Aronian in a fit of jealously, as he danced seductively with Ms Caoili.

"A couple of months ago I tried to get a couple of editors interested in the Chess Olympiad - an epic event involving more than 150 nations and several thousand punchy chess players. Nil interest. It takes a good off-the-board bust-up to get the juices flowing," wrote Moss. Caoili's mother, Annette, who lives on the Sunshine Coast, agrees.

"It has made chess nerds look a little bit spicy ... and people love that," says Mrs Caoili. "And the glamorous shots of Arianne are creating even more interest." She's right. Her 19-year-old daughter, Australia's No. 3 women's player, is somewhat sexier than a bearded Bobby Fischer or bespectacled Vladimir Kramnik, and has undoubtedly done an enormous amount for the profile of the sport.

Even though the Australian Chess Federation doesn't plan to use Ms Caoili as a pawn for the sport, they say if she attracts new players to the game, then they will welcome it. "The federation isn't going to modify its activities in any way because of her particular personal attributes, but if they happen to provide a bit of an interest at a superficial level, well that's a little bonus," says the deputy president of the Australian Chess Federation and president of Chess Victoria, Gary Wastell. Chess isn't the only so-called "daggy" pursuit to receive a sexy makeover.

Vanessa Mae, a London-based violinist with a penchant for short hemlines and plunging necklines, has "sexed-up" classical music in recent years, along with the likes of the sexy all-girl string quartet, Bond.

So sexy has the world of classical music become, it has its very own website www.beautyinmusic.com "the ultimate guide to the hottest women in classical music". The site showcases a bevy of classical music bombshells, listed by instrument, from bassoonists to sackbut players. Mae and Linda Brava, a Finnish Playboy centrefold, earn a spot in the violinists' category.

More recently, Jennifer Hawkins' weekly appearances on Dancing with the Stars, in little more than a couple of strategically placed sequins, has done for ballroom dancing what Anna Kournikova did for tennis, Tatiana did for pole vaulting and what US glamour girl, Natalie Gulbis - as famous for her swimsuit calendars as her golfing prowess - is doing for the sport of golf.

According to an associate professor from Melbourne University's department of psychology and behavioural sciences, Jennifer Boldero, it is not surprising that an activity once considered "daggy" can experience sudden popularity by its association with glamour. "Advertisers count on this every day," she says. "Human beings like to do the things and have the things that other people who are admired have and do."

A lecturer in marketing at RMIT and co-director of marketing company QBrand, Stephen Downes, agrees. "I think more than ever we're getting constantly exposed to what the so-called "beautiful people' are doing," he says. "And there's an awful lot of aspirational consumption going on out there. People often take up brands and products and hobbies and whatever as much for what it says about them, the image it projects about them, as they do for the content of the product or the hobby," he says.

Knitting, sewing and poker are other such activities that spring to mind.

Celebrity poker games and glamorous TV poker shows are spawning a new generation of poker players. While a couple of years back, knitting became the hobby-of-choice among young fashion-types, after celebrities like Kate Moss, Cameron Diaz and Madonna picked up the needles. Sewing is now the new knitting - since the likes of Nicole Kidman and Liz Hurley confessed to making their own clothes. And bridge or butterfly collecting could be next.

"Who knows," says Ms Boldero. "I mean there's lots of examples of things ... that suddenly become a fad because somebody who's popular or perceived to be glamorous does it," she says.

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Well! I could probably write 10,000 more words about all of this, but I'll content myself with these - oh my goodness!