Call me a "male chauvinist pig", but I cannot help but look. Many will object, although I doubt that the contestants will complain very much, but here is my beauty contest for girl chess grandmasters.
I must explain that not all are grandmasters. Those rated below 2200 are not grandmasters.
These were all contestants in the World Chess Olympiad, which was held in Istanbul from October 28 until November 12, 2000, except for Sopio Tkeshelashvili, and my reason for including her will become obvious.
If you have any candidates, and I am sure I have overlooked many, send me a photo by e-mail.
Sam Sloan
It was not only the women in the tournament who were beautiful. Some of the men were beautiful too. For example, there were Judit Polgar and Antoaneta Stefanova. I must admit they looked like women, but since they were playing in the "Men's World Chess Olympiad", I must be mistaken. (You can never tell these days).
The special award for "Best Wife" goes to Grandmaster Peter Leko, whose wife, Sophie, from Armenia, graced the Olympiad. Her father is a famous International Grandmaster.
| Judit Polgar scored a phenominal 10-3 for a performance rating of 2772 in the "Men's World Chess Olympiad" | Antoaneta Stefanova played fourth board for Bulgaria in the Men's World Chess Olympiad | Grandmaster Peter Leko of Hungary wins the Special Award for "Best Wife" for his wife Sophie from Armenia |
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| Antoaneta Stefanova, Bulgaria, 2514 | Grandmaster Peter Leko's Wife |
| Viktorija Cmilyte, who won the gold medal for first board playing for Lithuania | Eman Al-Rufei, who won the silver medal playing second board for Iraq | Shirin Navabi, who played second board for Iran, and finished fourth |
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| Eman Al-Rufei, Iraq, 2061 | Shirin Navabi, Iran, 2020 |
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