Fantasy Premier League: World chess champion Magnus Carlsen takes top spot

He’s already the best chess player in the world. Now Magnus Carlsen is using his mental fortitude to succeed in another game of strategy – fantasy football.

Norway’s world chess champion moved top of the leaderboard in Fantasy Premier League on Sunday – the Premier League’s official fantasy football game played by more than seven million people.

Carlsen, 29, has stormed to the top with a squad including Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, Leicester striker Jamie Vardy and, of course, everyone’s favourite bargain , Sheffield United’s John Lundstram – the top scoring defender in the game.

Carlsen – who has been world champion since 2013 – moved into the top 100 at the end of October and has been in the top 10 for the past three weeks before captaining Mohamed Salah for his two-goal display against Watford to go top.

One of the Norwegian’s main rivals for top spot also has sporting pedigree – former Liverpool defender Nick Tanner has not been out of the top three since 5 October.

Did You See This CB Softwares?

37 SOFTWARE TOOLS... FOR $27!?

Join Affiliate Bots Right Away

Carlsen is obviously enjoying his success, updating his Twitter bio to read: “World Chess Champion. The highest ranked chess player in the world. Current (live) #1 Fantasy Premier League player”.

He also addressed his fantasy football performance on social media, citing analytics company Opta as one of the factors behind his success.

“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,” the Norwegian tweeted.

“Part Opta-mist and part optimist.”

• Download and listen to the latest Football Daily podcast