Grandmasters Behaving Badly

Over chess babes:

When Danny Gormally, 30, one of Britain's leading chess players, spied his Armenian rival and the world's No 3 at the Turin Chess Olympiad jiving with a beautiful chess queen, usual tactics were abandoned.

In a spectacular strategic blunder, Mr Gormally allegedly moved in with clenched fist and sent Levon Aronian, the 23-year-old Armenian national hero, sprawling.

As gambits go, it was to prove one of the worst. Not only did Mr Gormally sacrifice both his dignity and place in the team, but the following day found himself at the wrong end of a beating as Mr Aronian's hot-headed team-mates weighed in with a forceful counter-attack.

....According to insiders, the catalyst for this whole sorry affair was the appearance on the dance floor of attractive Australian female No 3, Arianne Caoili, 19, whom Mr Gormally's team-mates believed him to be fond of.

Neither shy nor retiring, Miss Caoili, of Filipino descent and who aspires to be a professional singer, is clearly intent on enjoying life. Her website lists her likes as "getting up to no good", "fine food and fine boys", "Edward Norton and Johnny Depp" and "Pina coladas, vodka, red wine, Kahlua, dwarfs and the odd Cuban cigar".

Apart from improving her chess, which she has been playing since she was five, her ambitions include earning "giant gobs of money".

Clearly a party girl, she had a reputation, according to one source on the chess circuit, "for coming back at 2am and waking people up, then having recharged her batteries, leaving again at 5am".

....Miss Caoili is currently voted No 7 in the Top Ten Women's Chess Beauty Contest on a website dedicated to the charms of chess's female finest in terms of looks if not always in terms of rankings.