World chess champ Magnus Carlsen nearing top spot of Premier League Fantasy Football out of 7m people

CHESS grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has been showing off his tactical nous away from the board recently – with a starring run in fantasy football. A 75-point haul ahead of the final match in gameweek 16 put the globe’s top chess player at sixth in the Premier League’s official fantasy leaderboard. Over seven million players are […]

CHESS grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has been showing off his tactical nous away from the board recently – with a starring run in fantasy football.

A 75-point haul ahead of the final match in gameweek 16 put the globe’s top chess player at sixth in the Premier League’s official fantasy leaderboard.

EPA

Over seven million players are trying their luck in fantasy football this year and Carlsen’s team, called Kjell Ankedal, rose up the rankings having captained Mo Salah this week alongside picks of Son Heung-min, Jamie Vardy and Dele Alli.

What’s more, he will bag eight more points when the round is over thanks to Crystal Palace defender Martin Kelly coming off the bench for Sadio Mane.

On 1,077 points and placing himself in the Wolves fan league, footy-mad Norwegian Carlsen is best known for his exploits in a very different strategical game.

Only the legendary Garry Kasparov has spent more time as the highest-rated player in the world, a position Carlsen reached aged just 19 – the youngest person to ever hold the rank.

Speaking of his fantasy exploits earlier this year, he admitted on NRK TV: “In chess, you know when you’ve done well and when you’ve done poorly.

“But it’s hard for me to take praise for fantasy league, when I’ve just been lucky.”

Carlsen has backed Kevin De Bruyne and Trent Alexander-Arnold since the start, as well as high-scoring Sheffield United star John Lundstram who has benefited from somewhat mystifyingly being marked a defender by the game.

Chess journalist Tarjei Svensen told the Guardian: “His ability at fantasy league has been known for a couple of seasons now, but this season has been exceptional and he’s had another good week.

“His rise up the charts is incredible. He had a really good year for a while last season and then he dropped a couple of hundred places at the end of the season, but he was still in the top 1,000.

“It is a similar game, it requires planning and strategy. And he has an incredible memory which helps.”

With fantasy 16 rounds in, Carlsen’s strategy has seen him make no transfers whatsoever in seven gameweeks.

However, he is still human – as his 53-point showing in gameweek 14 proved, putting him only just inside the top three million for that round.

As any fantasy football player will know, sometimes the game has to be on your side too.

Gameweek 15 saw Salah and Anthony Martial drop to the bench, bringing in 17 points via Martin Kelly and Leander Dendoncker – plus handing the armband to vice-captain Sadio Mane and his 15 points.

You said something about “luck”, Magnus..!?