Women's Chess - Japanese Style

A story for the updated second edition of Jen Shahade's "Chess Bitch?"

Japan's fickle world of shogi, a local derivative of chess, has long been open to ridicule. But, thanks to some prominent knockers, women's shogi in particular is now undergoing something of a boom in popularity, according to Shukan Post.

Prattling away on the taxpayer funded NHK network in the earthy but friendly Kansai dialect of Japanese, diminutive but busty 24-year-old Shinobu Iwane is keeping growing numbers of Japanese abreast of the happenings in the world of women's shogi, aided ably by her ample bosom.

Read "Busty shogi queen helps pad Japanese chess fan base" from Mainichi Daily News.