Chess

WHO could forget how Faye Dunaway seduced Steve McQueen over a fireside game of chess in the 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair?

But now one of the world's top female players has gone a step further by writing a chess/sex instruction manual.

Russia's Natalia Pogonina, 24, a glamour model and woman grandmaster, is joining forces with her new husband Peter Zhdanov, a Russian debating champ and now her "manager", to write the ultimate seduction book Chess Kamasutra in which they will demonstrate how "it is possible to apply sex principles to chess, and vice-versa".

Among other such subjects, Pogonina and Zhdanov will, as they outlined in a recent interview, "be reviewing the most interesting openings and middlegame positions and relating them to positions from Kama Sutra".

The couple will also be explaining unique training methods for a new hybrid activity they have pioneered: "sexchess". And why not?

"Chess," Pogonina says, "is just dying for effective promotion."

Meanwhile, back at the real "mating game", Ivan Cheparinov duly won the 3rd Ruy Lpez Festival in Zafra, Spain, after a last round draw with England's Mickey Adams secured the Bulgarian first place on a score of 5/7. Young Spaniard David Larino Nieto, the sensation of the tournament, had his hopes of sole third-place finish dashed after he lost in the final round to top Indian woman player Humpy Koneru.

H. Koneru – D. Larino Nieto

3rd Ruy Lpez Festival, (7)

King's Indian Defence 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 g3 c5 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 Bg2 Qa5+ 6 Bd2 Qb6 7 dxc5 Qxc5 8 Qb3 d5 9 cxd5 Qxd5 10 Qa3 Nc6 11 Nc3 Qc4 12 Rc1 0-0 13 0-0 h6 14 Rfd1 Bf5 15 Be3 Rfd8 16 Nd2 Qe6 17 Nb3 Rxd1+ 18 Rxd1 Bh3 19 Nc5 Qf5 20 Nxb7 Bxg2 21 Kxg2 Ng4 22 Nd5 Rb8 23 Na5! Qh5 24 Nxc6 Qxh2+ 25 Kf3 e5 26 Qxa7 Rxb2 27 Nce7+ Kh7 28 Qa8 e4+ 29 Kxe4 Qg2+ 30 Kd3 Ne5+ 31 Kc3 Nd7+ 32 Bd4 Rb8 33 Nf6+ 1-0