King for a day! Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen loses his spot at the top of the Premier League Fantasy Football table, dropping to third place
- The world chess champion had risen to the summit of online fantasy football
- Magnus Carlsen, 29, is considered by some to be the best chess player ever
- Carlsen, who was at number one, slipped back into third after the weekend
Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has lost his top spot in the Premier League Fantasy Football rankings, dropping into third place.
The Norwegian, better known for his movements with 16 pieces, managed to soar to the top of the league’s official table last week.
The 29-year-old world chess champion slipped back last night following Brighton’s 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace.
Knocking him off number one is former Liverpool and Bristol Rovers defender Nick Tanner, whose team is called ‘winorloseonthebooze.’
Carlsen tweaked his Twitter profile, saying: ‘World Chess Champion. The highest ranked chess player in the world. Former (live) #1 Fantasy Premier League player.’
Magnus Carlsen, the 2018 World Chess Champion, soared to the top of the Fantasy Football rankings – he has slipped back into third after the weekend
Carlsen’s current side includes Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham and Leicester’s Jamie Vardy
The FPL is played by more than seven million people.
‘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,’ Carlsen told his Twitter followers last week. ‘Patent pending.’
Carlsen’s team includes Liverpool duo Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah and John Lundstrum of Sheffield United, the game’s top point-scoring defender.
This is his sixth successive season playing FPL. In the game, competitors pick a squad of real-life players who earn points based on their on-the-pitch performances, banking points for achievements including goals scored and clean sheets.
Carlsen’s best finish to date was 2397th in the 2017 to 2018 season.
Chess journalist Tarjei Svenson, who has known Mr Carlsen since he was eight-years-old, says he excels at FPL because he has a phenomenal memory for Premier League details.
Carlsen’s place as the top-ranked FPL player in the world has been taken by former Liverpool and Bristol Rovers defender Nick Tanner.
He said: ‘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.’
‘His level of knowledge about English football is amazing, which must help him a lot.’