The world’s best chess star has become the top fantasy football player on the planet

MAGNUS CARLSEN IS renowned as the most gifted chess player of his generation, having won the last four consecutive World Chess Championships, however another of his remarkable talents has only just become apparent to casual fans.

The 29-year-old has topped the Premier League’s official fantasy football table, putting him ahead of over seven million players.

It comes on the back of a brilliant weekend for Carlsen in which his captain, Mo Salah, earned 32 points after scoring a brace in Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Watford.

To mark the achievement, Carlsen, changed his Twitter profile. His bio now reads: “World Chess Champion. The highest ranked chess player in the world. Current (live) #1 Fantasy Premier League player.”

It is not the first time Carlsen has impressed in the activity for which he is less well-known. He finished in the top 3000 in the world for the 2017-18 fantasy campaign.

In an interview with Norwegian TV earlier this year, when asked about the subject, Carlsen said: “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.”