A study from Stockhom Univerisity which looked at the results of male chess players against attractive female opponents.

Researchers at Stockholm University have analysed strategies and results of players in games against attractive opponents. Attractiveness was rated by a panel of fifty observers, while the strategies employed were analysed deeply by an independent panel.

The whole thing sounds rather frivolous but it was a serious project which sought to understand the role of physical attractiveness in risk-taking.

The study, Entitled "Beauty Queens and Battling Knights: Risk Taking and Attractiveness in Chess," was published in November 2010 by Anna Dreber, from the Institute for Financial Research in Stockholm, and Christer Gerdes and Patrik Gransmark of the Swedish Institute for Social Research.

The authors used data from thousands of chess games. Nearly half of the 626 players whose games were analysed were women. The findings showed that men adopted riskier strategies when playing attractive women. Women's play was unaffected by the attractiveness of the opponent. Men's behaviour did not improve their results and may even have worsened them, there may be a lesson there.