'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has reacted to Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah's desire to play a game of chess against Carlsen.
The Egyptian winger recently revealed that he was a fan of chess. He also namedropped Magnus Carlsen by saying that he wishes to play a match against the World No. 1 chess player someday. Mohamed Salah said (via Sky Sports):
"I'm addicted to chess. No one has a chance with Magnus, but hopefully, we play one day. I'm 1400 (ELO rating)."
On November 25 (Saturday), Chess.com uploaded the quotes by the Liverpool forward on their official X (formerly known as Twitter) account, tagging Salah in the post.
The Norwegian chess grandmaster reacted to the post with a hand-waving emoji and tagged Mohamed Salah in his response. As a result, fans online have started speculating that a potential match between the two individuals at the chessboard was in the cards.
The dominance of Magnus Carlsen in the world of chess is second to none. In 2010, he became the youngest to reach No. 1 in the FIDE world rankings at the age of 19. He also defended his title consecutively from 2013 to 2023 at the World Chess Championships.
Does Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen support Liverpool?
Outside of chess, Magnus Carlsen is a big football fan. He has occasionally attended Real Madrid's games at Santiago Bernabeu. Last year, while speaking on the Lex Fridman Podcast, the Norwegian opened up about an incident that took place when he went to witness a Real Madrid game.
Carlsen revealed that the La Liga giants interviewed him and asked him about his favorite football player. During the interview, he took the name of former Real Madrid midfielder Isco. Interestingly, he was later advised to take the name of Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo. He said (via Lex Fridman Podcast):
“I went to quite a number of Madrid games and they’ve always been super helpful to me down there. The only thing is that they were going to do an interview, and they were going to ask me who my favorite player was."
He added:
"I said somebody else. I think it was Isco at that point, and they were like, ‘Okay, take two, now you say Ronaldo.’ So for them, it was very important, but it wasn’t that huge to me.”
In 2020, when Liverpool won the Premier League title after a 30 year wait, the Norwegian chess grandmaster took to Twitter (now X) to congratulate the Reds.
Despite his interest in football being apparent, Carlsen has never spoken publicly about his favourite football club.
