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MAGNUS CARLSEN

Norwegian chess champion tops Premier League fantasy football table

Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen is currently in first place out of over seven million users on the official English Premier League fantasy football game.

Published: 16 December 2019 16:19 CET
Norwegian chess champion tops Premier League fantasy football table
Magnus Carlsen, the current best Fantasy Premier League player. Photo: AFP

Carlsen moved to the very top of the Fantasy Premier League after his captain, Mohamed Salah, scored twice for Liverpool on Saturday, earning 32 points.

Contacted by British newspaper the Guardian, Carlsen put his success at the game down to both luck and statistics.

“In fantasy football I’m both an optimist and an Optamist,” he told the newspaper, referring to Opta, the statistical data provider which can be used to track the form of footballers.

Although the Norwegian could lose his spot on the Fantasy Premier League perch as soon as Monday night, it is still a remarkable achievement given the millions of participants in the game.

Carlsen, the current World Chess Champion considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time, saw fit to change his Twitter biography to reflect his fantasy football success.

“World Chess Champion. The highest ranked chess player in the world. Current (live) #1 Fantasy Premier League player,” it read on Monday.

Fantasy Premier League involves selecting a squad of players from the 20 English Premier League clubs using a limited budget. The players are awarded points after every match depending on their performance.

Fantasy league players can select, trade and drop players from their teams throughout the season.

The game is hugely popular in Norway, which had 8 players in the overall top 50 at the end of the 2016-17 season.

READ ALSO: Can Magnus Carlsen remain world chess champion in face-off with American Fabiano Caruana?

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CHESS

Norway’s Carlsen beats US rival to keep chess crown

Three-time chess champion Magnus Carlsen on Wednesday successfully defended his world title after demolishing US hopeful Fabiano Caruana in a winner-takes-all finale.

Published: 28 November 2018 20:07 CET
Norway's Carlsen beats US rival to keep chess crown
Carlsen in action against Curuana on Wednesday. Photo: Tolga Akmen / AFP
The 27-year-old Norwegian won three successive rapid-chess tiebreakers in a display of intuition and guile that overwhelmed the 26-year-old American in London.
 
The fearless performance will go a long way to cementing his claim to be history's greatest player — a title some still award to Soviet-Russian legend Garry Kasparov.
 
Kasparov himself appeared in awe of Carlsen's display in a format that has seen many grandmasters before him wilt under the mental strain.
 
“Carlsen's consistent level of play in rapid chess is phenomenal,” Kasparov tweeted. “We all play worse as we play faster and faster, but his ratio may be the smallest ever, perhaps only a 15 percent drop off. Huge advantage in this format.”
 
Carlsen's tactics
 
The games marked a complete departure from the string of draws played out in their original 12-match series which began on November 9.
 
Yet those tense tugs of war were a testament to the prodigious skills of the American Italian. The first US contender since Bobby Fischer beat the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky at height of the Cold War in 1972 is the game's second-ranked player.
 
Caruana has spent most of his career in Carlsen's shadow but is rated only three points below the Norwegian's leading 2,835 points.
 
 
Chess experts said Carlsen appeared to be rattled by the Miami-born yoga lover in a memorable game 10.
 
Carlsen was only too happy to agree to draws in the final two matches — the last one from a winning position that saw Kasparov shake his head in disbelief.
 
“In light of this shocking draw offer from Magnus in a superior position with more time, I reconsider my evaluation of him being the favourite in rapids,” Kasparov tweeted after Monday's match. “Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his.”
 
But Carlsen seemed determined to decide things in Wednesday's rapid-chess tiebreakers — a format that saw him beat Sergey Karjakin in the 2016 title match in New York.
 
Caruana admitted that he was “relieved” to still be in the contest after Monday's 12-match scare.
 
“I'm mainly relieved. When you feel like you're sort of on the brink of defeat, or at least you have a very dangerous position, then of course it's quite good.”
 
But Carlsen never appeared to lose faith in skills that saw him dubbed the “Mozart of chess” by The Washington Post after becoming a grandmaster at the age of 13.
 
“I think I have very good chances,” Carlsen told reporters after Monday's game.
 
By AFP's Dmitry Zaks