Extract/Quote:
"England’s Harry Kane, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Anthony Gordon have all spoken about their love of chess. Chelsea’s manager, Enzo Maresca, wrote a 7,000-word thesis on how it can help train the mind of a football coach. Last year Mohamed Salah admitted he was “addicted to chess”, had a rating of around 1400 – well above average – and namechecked Carlsen. “I’m not Magnus, but I’m good,” he said. “No one has a chance with Magnus. But hopefully we will play one day.”
So would Carlsen be up for a game against the Liverpool striker? Of course he would. “I’m a huge football fan and definitely a fan of Salah,” he tells the Observer. “I’ve not met him yet but I would certainly love to – as well as other sports people who I admire who play chess.”
In 2018, the Norwegian routed Salah’s teammate Alexander-Arnold in 17 moves in a game that lasted five minutes. So is there anyone in the Premier League who might fare better? “Martin Ødegaard plays a little bit,” says Carlsen. “He was playing a lot for a while, and then not so much. He’s not a bad player, but he’s kind of private about it.
“As for the best, I don’t know. There are a lot of decent players. But I don’t know if there are any very good players among the sports people I have faced.”
Such is Carlsen’s love of football that in 2020 he even topped the official Fantasy Football rankings, ahead of 7.3m others, before ending the season in 10th. But this year, he concedes, isn’t going so well. “It’s horrible,” he says, smiling. “I don’t have Erling Haaland. I’m a bit of a casual these days.”
by junglejimbo88
3 Comments
Lol he needs to start give odds to make this any fun. And we’re talking like Q+R odds
It would be fair if they played alternating rounds of chess and football (1×1 plus goalies?). Similar to [chess boxing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing).
Chess is distracting. Believe me!