Your premise is silly. There has NEVER been a major increase in the interest of chess with the public to due a "glamorous" woman. If I'm wrong prove it. You won't be able to do so. This whole thread is just an excuse by shallow boys to talk about "hot chicks" who play chess. Just stupid and insulting to both chess players and women who might otherwise be interested. Think about some young girl, say a teenanger, who is checking out Chess.com because they're interested in chess. Now, they come across THIS THREAD and they have to start wondering what kind of abuse, come ons, or just stupidity they'll have to deal with because they are a girl. Your justification is shallow and dare I say juvenille. You have not insulted me, far from it. If you think that that is why I'm now posting here you've COMPLETELY missed the points of my arguement.
Girls/women have to deal with so much sexual crap because of their gender that men don't have to deal with and this thread is just another example of the stupitidy that I'm referring to. Why is this? I could try to answer that question but I won't bother, it's enough to just notice that it's true. So, excerise your freedom of speech but notice the ignorance of your argument and how you will TURN OFF most any female to this community when they read most of the thoughts (except for mine) that are posted herein.
RC, have you ever been to a scholastic chess tournament? The pre-adolescent sections are about equally male and female. Girls stop playing chess when their cohort males become adolescent.
I believe there are fewer women in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science type fields. I think it has more to do with social and cultural pressures/norms than (smelly) adolescent boys.
Same can be said of chess.