The
beauty, the star and the beast:
Pawn
and King’s fight over
the Queen
To
whom has this never happened? You are in love with a beautiful
person, but that person is in love with someone else. It
is the oldest story in the world and happens to all kinds
of people, including chess players.
The
actors of this drama are the beautiful International Women’s
Master from Australia Arianne Caoili, the jealous and violent
English Grand Master Danny Gormally, and the star of our
last article, Armenian Levon Aronian. The scene is the party
of the closing ceremony of the Chess Olympiad in Turin,
Italy, celebrated last Wednesday.
The
two winning teams, Armenia in the men’s division and Ukraine
in the women’s, had already received their medals. The winners
were in the mood to party and everybody was invited. As
the night went on, so did the drinking, and an animated
Levon Aronian decided at some point that this night was
going to be his night. He is the player of the moment, had
just won the gold medal, and was the talk of the town.
On
the dancing floor Levon saw Arianne Caoli, one of chess’s
sex symbols. She is half Filipino and half Australian, 19
years old, and very attractive. Levon and Arianne began
to dance. Danny, 30, was watching from the side of the dancing
floor. He was madly in love with her and had been e‑mailing
chess’s beauty queen hot and heavy, but he was not the star.
Arianne seemed to like the company of the Armenian better
and at some point Levon tried to move from words to action
with her. This was too much for the Englishman, whose victories
haven’t come as readily on the chess board. He jumped onto
the dance floor and punched Levon in a fit of jealousy.
Thereafter, club security had to intervene in order to stop
the fight among English and Armenian players. The result
was the immediate suspension of the Englishman and a shiner
for the Armenian.
Today
we present a brilliant game played by the dancing queen,
Arianne Caoli. Her match play was inconsistent in the Olympiad,
but in the third round she managed to overcome Women’s Grand
Master Irina Chelushkina, from the Serbia and Montenegro
team.
Chelushkina,
Irina (ELO: 2320) ‑ Caoili, Arianne (2169) [A07‑
Réti Opening]
