Surrounded by 20 middle-aged men in suits, 18-year-old Alexandra Kostenyuk was in complete control.
On a stairway in the State Duma, the world female vice chess champion recently staged a lightening attack on deputies and officials. Dressed in a cream-colored designer suit, Kostenyuk took on all comers, spending a few moments with each competitor before walking swiftly on -- starting by moving her pawn to G3 at each board.
Even in Russia, one of the few countries to consider chess a full-fledged sport, chess players -- especially women -- have not had high profiles, but Kostenyuk is something different.
In addition to her championship medals, she has written a book with her father, "How to Become a Grandmaster at Age 14;" she's a veteran of fashion shoots with the likes of Vogue and Elle; and she's signed a sponsorship deal with a Swiss watch firm -- all of which have seen her dubbed the Anna Kournikova of chess.
The Duma deputies took her to their hearts. Before her blitzkrieg through the chamber, Kostenyuk was introduced by Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky. "She's great," Yavlinsky said, "much better than the war [in Iraq]."
"Sasha is the pop star of chess," said Liberal Democratic deputy leader Alexei Mitrofanov. "She's managed to combine show business and chess."
The varied coteries of Duma deputies, their assistants and Duma workers stood nearby chatting as Kostenyuk made her way round the table, her concentration unshaken.
Nearly four hours after the start, Kostenyuk left having beaten 16 of her opponents, drawn two matches and lost two. After the game, she was visibly drained from the mental effort and said little in her interviews or even to her parents.
Kostenyuk is the highest-paid female chess player in the world, and she owes much of her success to her determined and ambitious father.
"I can't say that I accepted the idea of studying with a 'hooray.' In the first years, I did what I was told. Only later, not that long ago, did I begin to reach for the top," she wrote in their book.
"It's a part of my life," she said. "I owe a lot to chess, although, I have sacrificed a lot for it."
Konstantin Kostenyuk decided to force Alexandra to become a chess player after he recovered from his disappointment that she was born a girl. "Later, I calmed down. A daughter is a daughter," he wrote in their book.
He pushed his daughter from the age of 5, when he first sat her down and made her practice four hours a day.
An aspiring but unsuccessful inventor and former military man, he invested a lot in his daughter's training, although he had some early doubts.
"At that time clever people were becoming oligarchs, and I was playing chess with my daughter," he said. "What if nothing happened?"
But Alexandra Kostenyuk showed skill. "She has real talent," said Yury Lokhov, 71, an international referee and a grandmaster who watched Kostenyuk grow up.
Kostenyuk's sporting moment came at the World Championships in 2001 when she came second after a titanic battle with China's Zhu Chen. Her real moment of fame, though, only came after she became the face of the International Chess Federation, or FIDE, in 2001 and modeled clothes inspired by chess.
The unexpected image of a chic teenage girl engaged in an intellectual pursuit more commonly associated with grumpy men in wrinkled suits soon attracted media interest and a new Russian sporting icon was born.
The web site www.kosteniuk.com, produced by Kostenyuk's father, allows fans to browse dozens of pictures of the photogenic teeenager and buy souvenirs.
Dozens of framed pictures from Kostenyuk's numerous fashion shoots were placed on the Duma's stairways with lucky deputies allowed to pick one as a keepsake.
"Chess up to now has been strictly limited to middle-aged men," said Diego Garces, Kostenyuk's Swiss manager. "Sasha can bring a lot of excitement," he said, looking round the room at the competitors.
So much excitement that she has received offers from Playboy and Penthouse to pose. Both were promptly turned down, he said.
"She's the Kournikova of chess," added Garces, although he admits that Kostenyuk would not make that comparison herself.
He tells the story of how Kostenyuk turned up for an exhibition match in Germany at the same time a well-known grandmaster was scheduled to hold his annual exhibition match. The town's dignitaries usually attended the grandmaster's match but with Kostenyuk in town, they chose her.
"There are lots of people who want to play against a man," Garces said, "But it's much more exciting and more fun against Sasha."
Not surprisingly, Kostenyuk's fame has created grumbling about the publicity she receives instead of more accomplished players.
"It's only a game," she said, adding that she is only competitive on the board.
Kostenyuk is preparing to take a few months off to complete her education. Meanwhile, the chess world may have to watch out for her younger sister, Oksana.
"She's very good," Lokhov said.
On a stairway in the State Duma, the world female vice chess champion recently staged a lightening attack on deputies and officials. Dressed in a cream-colored designer suit, Kostenyuk took on all comers, spending a few moments with each competitor before walking swiftly on -- starting by moving her pawn to G3 at each board.
Even in Russia, one of the few countries to consider chess a full-fledged sport, chess players -- especially women -- have not had high profiles, but Kostenyuk is something different.
In addition to her championship medals, she has written a book with her father, "How to Become a Grandmaster at Age 14;" she's a veteran of fashion shoots with the likes of Vogue and Elle; and she's signed a sponsorship deal with a Swiss watch firm -- all of which have seen her dubbed the Anna Kournikova of chess.
The Duma deputies took her to their hearts. Before her blitzkrieg through the chamber, Kostenyuk was introduced by Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky. "She's great," Yavlinsky said, "much better than the war [in Iraq]."
"Sasha is the pop star of chess," said Liberal Democratic deputy leader Alexei Mitrofanov. "She's managed to combine show business and chess."
The varied coteries of Duma deputies, their assistants and Duma workers stood nearby chatting as Kostenyuk made her way round the table, her concentration unshaken.
Nearly four hours after the start, Kostenyuk left having beaten 16 of her opponents, drawn two matches and lost two. After the game, she was visibly drained from the mental effort and said little in her interviews or even to her parents.
Kostenyuk is the highest-paid female chess player in the world, and she owes much of her success to her determined and ambitious father.
"I can't say that I accepted the idea of studying with a 'hooray.' In the first years, I did what I was told. Only later, not that long ago, did I begin to reach for the top," she wrote in their book.
"It's a part of my life," she said. "I owe a lot to chess, although, I have sacrificed a lot for it."
Konstantin Kostenyuk decided to force Alexandra to become a chess player after he recovered from his disappointment that she was born a girl. "Later, I calmed down. A daughter is a daughter," he wrote in their book.
He pushed his daughter from the age of 5, when he first sat her down and made her practice four hours a day.
An aspiring but unsuccessful inventor and former military man, he invested a lot in his daughter's training, although he had some early doubts.
"At that time clever people were becoming oligarchs, and I was playing chess with my daughter," he said. "What if nothing happened?"
But Alexandra Kostenyuk showed skill. "She has real talent," said Yury Lokhov, 71, an international referee and a grandmaster who watched Kostenyuk grow up.
Kostenyuk's sporting moment came at the World Championships in 2001 when she came second after a titanic battle with China's Zhu Chen. Her real moment of fame, though, only came after she became the face of the International Chess Federation, or FIDE, in 2001 and modeled clothes inspired by chess.
The unexpected image of a chic teenage girl engaged in an intellectual pursuit more commonly associated with grumpy men in wrinkled suits soon attracted media interest and a new Russian sporting icon was born.
The web site www.kosteniuk.com, produced by Kostenyuk's father, allows fans to browse dozens of pictures of the photogenic teeenager and buy souvenirs.
Dozens of framed pictures from Kostenyuk's numerous fashion shoots were placed on the Duma's stairways with lucky deputies allowed to pick one as a keepsake.
"Chess up to now has been strictly limited to middle-aged men," said Diego Garces, Kostenyuk's Swiss manager. "Sasha can bring a lot of excitement," he said, looking round the room at the competitors.
So much excitement that she has received offers from Playboy and Penthouse to pose. Both were promptly turned down, he said.
"She's the Kournikova of chess," added Garces, although he admits that Kostenyuk would not make that comparison herself.
He tells the story of how Kostenyuk turned up for an exhibition match in Germany at the same time a well-known grandmaster was scheduled to hold his annual exhibition match. The town's dignitaries usually attended the grandmaster's match but with Kostenyuk in town, they chose her.
"There are lots of people who want to play against a man," Garces said, "But it's much more exciting and more fun against Sasha."
Not surprisingly, Kostenyuk's fame has created grumbling about the publicity she receives instead of more accomplished players.
"It's only a game," she said, adding that she is only competitive on the board.
Kostenyuk is preparing to take a few months off to complete her education. Meanwhile, the chess world may have to watch out for her younger sister, Oksana.
"She's very good," Lokhov said.
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