GUERNSEY’S chess team are revelling in the attention the punch-up at the 37th Olympiad has given the sport. ‘It’s all good fun and it makes it more exciting,’ said Garry Forbes.

‘The sport in Eastern Europe is seen as trendy, not like in the UK where it is seen as geeky,’ he added.

Forbes and his colleagues were at the party at which a British grandmaster hit an Armenian champion in a jealous squabble over a sexy female Australian player, Arianne Caoili.

Brit Danny Gorm-ally, a past competitor at the Guernsey International Festival, punched Levon Aronian on the dance floor and within 24 hours the incident was making news worldwide.

‘The Bermuda team always organise a party with a lot of punch,’ said another Guernsey player, Fred Hamperl.

‘It was an excellent party and we were outside talking with some grandmasters when one of the Bermudian guys came out and told us there had been a fight.’

Apparently 30-year-old Gormally had a soft spot for Caoili, the 19-year-old Australian with supermodel looks.

‘We saw Danny with her quite a few times in cafes and pubs,’ said Garry Forbes.

‘They looked sort of together.’

Hamperl was not surprised that a fight ensued when Gormally took exception to the 23-year-old Aronian from the Armenian team getting intimate with Caoili,

‘He went over and lamped him one,’ said Hamperl.

‘He’s quite a fiery character and she’s a very pretty girl.’

The next day though, Aronian got his revenge as he and his teammates spotted Gormally in the street and they proceeded to pile into him.

Gormally left soon afterwards for his Durham home before the competition had finished.

In a previous Olympiad a Georgian player head-butted a Spanish official.

And with top women players on the covers of men’s magazines, the image of chess as a sport for geeks is changing.

‘Aronian is like Wayne Rooney in Armenia and in the Ukraine they are combining chess and boxing tournaments.