Monday Knight Football: Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen in the hunt for Fantasy Premier League crown

17 Dec, 2019 09:54 / Updated 5 years ago

The world chess champion Magnus Carlsen has his competitive sights set on a completely different title, the Fantasy Premier League title.

Master of the chess board Carlsen knows all about using strategy and skill to plot his way to victory in the super-competitive world of chess. And the Norwegian grandmaster has turned those skills to his advantage in a completely different field, fantasy football.

The 29-year-old, reigning world chess champion has been battling it out at the sharp end of the official Premier League's Fantasy Football game, Fantasy Premier League.

He led the overall standings heading into the weekend's matches, but was bumped off the top spot after Crystal Palace drew 1-1 with Brighton and Hove Albion. He now sits in third place, still very much in touching distance of the lead.

Carlsen has shared his progress through the competition via his Twitter profile, and tweaked his profile bio to make reference to his contendership in this season's FPL competition.

"World Chess Champion. The highest ranked chess player in the world. Former (live) #1 Fantasy Premier League player," it reads.

"Since a lot of people are asking about my #FPL strategy, mine is the not so groundbreaking one of part stats and part gut feeling. Patent pending," he told his Twitter followers.

Carlsen's lineup includes Liverpool stars Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, who he hopes will fire him to the FPL title, just as they appear to be doing in real life for the Anfield club in the Premier League itself.

Also on rt.com Carlsen beats Caruana in tiebreakers to defend World Chess Championship title