MAN OF MANY TALENTS

World Chess Champion Now Leads Global Fantasy Soccer League

Magnus Carlsen, the world’s best chess player for the last decade, is now leading seven million fantasy soccer players.

Can he leave some glory for other people? Magnus Carlsen, the world’s best chess player for the last decade, is now also leading seven million players of the English Premier League’s official fantasy soccer game. The chess grandmaster took the lead in the Fantasy Premier League on Sunday after his captain, Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, scored two goals. Carlsen, who insists his fantasy success is all down to luck, changed his Twitter profile to reflect his proud achievement. It now reads: “World Chess Champion. The highest ranked chess player in the world. Current (live) #1 Fantasy Premier League player.” However, he only leads the standings by one point, and risks being topped Monday night. Second-place Nick Tanner, a former Liverpool player, and his team “winorloseonthebooze” is likely to pick up some points in Monday’s evening match between Crystal Palace and Brighton. Carlsen’s team, Kjell Ankedal, finished among the top 3,000 players in the 2017-2018 league, which followed on from three other impressive seasons.