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Norwegian chess player Magnus Carlsen (file pic). Utrecht Robin/ABACAPRESS.COM
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The world's best chess star has become the top fantasy football player on the planet

It has emerged that Norway’s Magnus Carlsen is highly talented at more than one activity.

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.”

Nick Tanner, the ex-Liverpool and Bristol Rovers player, is just a point behind him in second and could leapfrog the star depending on the outcome of this evening’s Crystal Palace-Brighton match.

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