Excuse me, are you a (chess) model?
The thing about chess is it is often seen as a hobby or past-time for those intellectually inclined. Hence we tend to see many chess themed banking or investment type adverts to signify that the company promoting the financial product or services have done their strategic planning in the business markets before proposing to help you make your fortune.
This advertising work by Creativepool, Chess by Shermin Ong for Bank of Singapore, is a very good example. The premise is that the banks help you make the right tactical or strategic moves and age is not an issue. It's all ability driven.
However, if local chess personalities can be involved in such advertisements, it would, in my opinion be even more impactful for chess perception and participation. Real life chess masters being featured in the public mainstream media and lifestyle print/digital works would be defining examples/models (per se or otherwise) of success and exemplars.
Back when Professor Lim Kok Ann used to run the Singapore Chess Bulletin, he somehow got the big bank to advertise in the magazine with the following type of ads in the 1960s, slipping in local chess masters names (NM Tan Lian Seng and IM Tan Lian Ann) and even their game positions.
In more recent years, we have seen more diverse kind of representation of the local chess player. The most concrete example was GM Tin Jingyao's endorsement of the Mindstretcher Education Centre as I had reported on, a few blogposts ago. Here is the first of 4 videos by the company featuring Jingyao.
In the international chess scene, we have seen quite a number of chess players/masters who have done modelling shots or were featured in fashion magazines /luxury-themed spreads. The most well known one must be Magnus Carlsen's fashion shots for G Star Raw with the likes of Liv Tyler. It's groundbreaking because it's usually the ladies who will glam up the fashion pages. For example, you have GM Alexandra Kosteniuk on the covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan magazines.
Also, IM Tanya Sachdev, GM Victoria Cymilyte and GM Eliza Paetz had modelled for the Spanish label Desigual as reported in New In Chess (2012-2).
Conversely, we have the world famous supermodels-who-plays-chess with the most well known one being Carmen Kass, who was president of the Estonian Chess Federation for 8 years. Another famous example is Bojana Krsmanovic whose shots for Guess and others surely puts her the world class model league.
If we are discussing chess masters who have modelled, In more recent times, it was IM/WGM Sara Khadem who became prominent in this aspect.
She appeared in Vogue (thanks to IM Jovi Houska for indicating this) with this cover+6 pages spread as well as in Elle magazines.
Slovenian IM Laura Unuk likewise (thanks to Redittor Interesting-Take781 for pointing this out), excels at both chess and modelling, as she is the Brand Ambassador for Huawei, Ford Slovenia and Femme Fashion.
Other women's world champions (apart from the previously mentioned GM Kosteniuk) who have graced fashion magazines are the Chinese GMs Ju Wenjun for Vogue and Hou Yifan for Oyster Magazine (Australia) as well as numerous Chinese spreads.
On the local front, we have seen quite a number of chess masters showing up in the fashion or luxury lifestyle magazines/websites. First, it was GM Kevin Goh who caught the eye of Tatler Asia and thus was featured in the November 2024 pages covering him as as a Gen-t honouree leader for tomorrow award winner.
Lately, it's the chess ladies (abuden...) who are showing up in digital and magazine print. This month, WGM Gong Qianyun is featured in Pin Prestige magazine brandishing a Bouvet Miss Audrey “Bris de Verre” watch (retail price: $61k - gulp) and donning Loro Piana garb (very conservative but definitely high end - according to a chessmum).
They wanted her to look like a chess queen, it seems. Methinks she carried off the Kdrama assassin or mob final boss vibes..or maybe that's what they mean by chess queen...
Last but not least, let's look at a spread and video done by a sort of local establishment, Marina Bay Sands on their 'Nothing comes by chance" feature (August 2025).
As for the writeup/photo shoot National Team Program member Lana Rice is being showcased here as well as a nice 'behind the scenes' shot here, as a representation of Singapore chess talent
Also featured is Hirfan Rozmi, the mastermind of Aliwal Chess Club with its zany concepts and making chess dope and legit.
Personally I think as long as chess and chess personalities are promoted in the mainstream media and established professional magazines/websites, all is good. It just makes the game more acceptable and all the better, high class.
