Some things are so well known they hardly seem worth including but by the same token, their very popularity makes the mention of them almost required.

Maria Manakova made chess history when she posed partially nude for the Russian rag Speed. Not just a pretty face, Ms. Manakova is a WGM and claims that her specialties are "Chess and Sex." Perhaps she should be authoring this article. If her exposure was meant to attract attention to women in chess, she certainly achieved her goal. Whether such attraction is good for chess, or for women, is a question that chess fans

Chessbase published a translation of an interview Ms. Manakova gave to MK-Voskresenye magazine, some of which is quite revealing:

"People started to think about me as a specialist in sex because I once said that a woman should be woman all the time – at home, at work and at the chess board." ... "If women chess players become more attractive, more sexual, many things will change. Spectators and journalists will pay more attention at them, chess will become more popular." ... "They [some women chess-layers] think that chess is an intellectual game, and that it shouldn’t became some kind of "merchandise". I don’t think that this is correct. We are not as strong as the male players. So why shouldn’t we cash in on our beauty, don’t you think?"
                                       [see Lisa Lane]

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Maria Manakova posing prettily with a chessboard

The logical outgrowth of this sort of publicity was realized in 2005 when two men, Eugeny Tkachiev and his younger sibling, super-GM, Vladislav Tkachiev (originally from Moscow, then Kazakhstan, now France) hosted a project they called the "World Chess Beauty Contest."

According to the NY Times (November 27, 2005):

Mr. Tkachiev said that the people who do not play the game have a wrong opinion about chess. "They think that it is only a game for those who are quite inactive and unattractive and aged," he said. "It is simply not true. This is a very democratic game for anyone. There are a lot of attractive people, whether female or male. We decided to show this side of chess."

and

Nigel Short, 40, an English grandmaster who is ranked 32nd in the world, is an "arbiter" on the chess beauty site. While he could not really define that role, he said the site was meant to be good-natured.....
Mr. Short also said that the site was meant to help promote women's chess. "How many women can play chess at a high level?" Mr. Short said. "There is precisely one, Judit Polgar. If you want to promote women's chess on its own, then you have to do something like this."

Of course, the project turned out to be highly controversial, and, maybe, that was one of it's original intentions:

Susan Polgár who is the embodiment of grace and dignity in chess and never one to mince words wrote:

I do not approve the idea of women using sex symbol to further their careers. Prove yourself on the chess board first if you are a chess player and if you want to be taken seriously. The Polgar sisters have turned down millions of dollars in endorsement in the height of our careers because we wanted to concentrate in our chess and not side activities. I guess our results speak for our decisions. I find many of the pictures flaunted by women chess players distasteful but then again that is only my opinion. Other women may disagree with me. I also find the World Chess Beauty contest appalling. This was a contest created by a few male players who are known as “ladies’ men”. Many of the comments by the voters are mean, sexist, rude, demeaning, obnoxious, and atrocious.

The equally outspoken, though philosophically different, Jennifer Shahade wrote:

Rather than promote chess, it promotes that women's looks are all-important. Feelings are liable to be hurt by low ratings and unkind comments.... I find this idea as grandiose and innovative as the Scholar's Mate.

Curiously, had the contest been less sexist and opened to members of either gender, Vladislav Tkachiev himself may have been a contender.

Tkachiev does have a unique view of chess. Currently (October  2006) 54 on FIDE's ranking chart, he is the French Champion and one of the world's better rapid chess players who is quoted as saying that "only blitz could make chess a spectator sport, because the intrigue is obvious even for the most ignorant observers."

Clearly, his promotional ideas for chess, whether good or bad,  extend far beyond the traditional.

There are several sites unapologetically devoted to to chess and sex.
 

One is called LoveChess: the Erotic Chess Game

Love Chess is apparently a downloadable chess game that utilizes male and female characters, in the form of Greek statuary, for chess pieces. Th epieces emphasize the various chess moves with sexual moves of their own.

 It self-describes itself as "Based on the Greek and Trojan epos, LoveChess takes you to a place where the gods have sex on the chess board."
 

A blurb on the site (from Performance PC Game Magazine) endorses it as "Chess with a dash of the Kama Sutra" perhaps belying Bobby Fischer's indictment that "Chess is better that sex."

A second site is called Strip Chess.

The is a totally mild, cartoon-ish, java-based game on the chess-variants site in which checking is more important than mating. "In this variant, each time a player is checked, off comes one article of clothing. If you lose your last article of clothing, you lose the game."

There are Three versions: Strip Chess I,  Strip Chess II, and Strip Chess III

 

One interesting item is that the page gives a link to a film entitled, Two Weeks Notice, which featured a game of Strip Chess.

Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant playing a game of Strip Chess in the 2002 film Two Weeks Notice.

(Note the chess pieces are architectural representations.)

Chess is a purely intellectual game. But humans aren't purely intellectual beings and chess isn't restricted by the confines of the 64 squares. The presence of women in chess, an arena overwhelmingly predominated by men, whether we like it or not, adds a different flavor to the mix. Sometimes it's felt over the board, sometimes in the spill-over of literature and art, sometimes in the most unnatural and forced associations. Different times, customs and social views seem to dictate the manner in which men have historically respond to women via chess. For a long time women were objects of romanticism with varying degrees of erotic undertones. Today the sexuality is more blatant and explicit. Some things seem certain: women aren't going anywhere and men will continue respond to women in ways that are not purely intellectual. The synergy that pushes the envelope is constant, only things that change are the the size and shape of the envelope.

Some Links:

Romance in Chess - Mark Weeks at about.com
Chess for Lovers - Mark Weeks at about.com
Chess and Sex - Jeremy Silman
Sex and Chess - Susan Polgár
Best Chess Couples? - Susan Polgár
Ladies in chess - Susan Polgár
Soft Pawn - Times Online
New chess trend: Hot women who pose in bikinis, and less
Sex Differences in Intellectual Performance:Analysis of a Large Cohort of Competitive Chess Players
Christopher F. Chabris, Harvard University; Mark E. Glickman, Boston University School of Public Health
The Queen of the Red Chessmen - Lucretia P. Hale; Atlantic Monthly, February, 1858
Britney and Kevin aren't the first to find chess sexy - Stephen Moss of Guardian Unlimited