ByMax ChestertonBBC Sport senior journalist- Published18 minutes ago
Erling Haaland, Victor Wembanyama and Carlos Alcaraz all have one thing in common: a shared passion for the ancient game of chess.
Just this week Haaland invested in a new global chess tour, with the Manchester City and Norway striker calling the intellectual pursuit "an incredible game" to play.
The 25-year-old likened the board game to football as "it sharpens your mind" and said it helps to support an individual's ability to formulate strategies and plan ahead.
Wembanyama, one of the top basketball players in the world, is also an admirer and went viral after calling on fans to face him at chess in a New York park.
Its benefits are not lost on world men's tennis number one Alcaraz either, with the Spaniard stating how its strategic benefits helps improve his game on the court.
So what is it that makes chess so popular among sportspeople?
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Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah says he is "addicted" to playing online chess
While chess could not be further from the rough and tumble nature of the Premier League, a board game that puts strategy, planning and problem-solving at its heart has evident transferable skills.
Real Madrid and England defender Trent Alexander-Arnold is a keen player and grew up competing with his brothers when football wasn't on the agenda.
In 2018, he took on Norwegian chess grandmaster and five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen in a five-minute 17-move defeat.
"Football and chess can seem like sporting polar opposites, but there are so many similarities with the modern game," Alexander-Arnold said.
"Technology is playing an increasingly important role in the life of a footballer and I guess that is true across most sports now."
His England team-mate Eberechi Eze is an admirer too. Last year the Arsenal midfielder pocketed £15,000 by winning Chess.com's four-day amateur PogChamps tournament, contested by 12 celebrity content creators and athletes.
This uptake by athletes has not gone unnoticed in the chess world.
"We have always had [Erling] Haaland as interested in chess because he is friendly with Magnus Carlsen, they are both Norwegian superstars," explains Malcolm Pein, British chess player, England captain, author and journalist.
"There are lots of others who play like Harry Kane, who is pretty good, Eberechi Eze won a chess tournament not long ago, and Bryan Mbeumo also plays.
"We are going to have to have a tournament to sort it out.
"I suspect that Crystal Palace defender Borna Sosa might be the best of them all, I have played him a little bit and I can confirm that he is a very accomplished player."
How does chess help sportspeople?
Image source, Total Chess/Jonathan TurtonImage caption, Haaland says chess and football share several characteristics, such as strategy and quick thinking
While physicality, technique and endurance are key components for any top-level sportsperson, the ability to think, adapt and outwit opponents is equally important.
Former Barcelona manager Quique Setien was drawn to chess because of its rules, positions and tactics.
"Chess and football are similar, the pieces are connected to attack and defence. It is vital to dominate the centre of the board," he explained.
Compatriot Alcaraz also said it benefits his game, in a 2018 interview with Vogue magazine, saying: "You have to have intuition about where the other player is going to send the ball, you have to move ahead of time, and try to do something that will make him uncomfortable. So I play it [chess] a lot."
Pein believes the benefits for sportspeople are twofold.
"A lot of them find it a very good way to switch off, but Mohamed Salah has said that it helps him with his football," he told BBC Sport.
"I used to teach Boris Becker and he said that it helped him sometimes plan and think a bit more strategically in his tennis. When he started to coach [Novak] Djokovic, I noticed that the two of them used to play quite regularly.
"It is the thinking ahead and trying to identify critical moments [that are important] because in chess you have to remain calm and if you let emotions come into it, you are done for."
The competitive nature of chess is also appealing to athletes used to the cut and thrust of elite-level competition.
"It's attractive to people because it is in a game form," Emil Sutovsky, chief executive officer of the International Chess Federation (Fide), tells BBC Sport.
"If you are a chess player, you are competing. Chess embodies this mixture of strategical thinking and concrete decisions, like taking a decision on every step of every move and that resembles life, a career and a sport.
"I recall Carlos Alcaraz mentioning it several times that he plays chess and it helps him to plan out his play during tennis matches.
"Professional athletes appreciate chess because they are very competitive by their very nature, and chess is about as competitive as it gets," he adds.
Victor Wembanyama’s chess game in a New York park
Magnus Carlsen: Chess is like physical sport. Audio, 00:04:05Magnus Carlsen: Chess is like physical sport
- Published19 March 2013
Why is chess becoming more popular?
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, NBA star Wembanyama set up a chess event named 'Hoop Gambit' in his hometown last summer
With sportspeople travelling regularly and spending days in hotels away from their families, online chess has become a way of keeping that competitive edge alive at all times of the day.
The tabletop form of the game also remains hugely popular, with the England rugby union squad holding chess competitions during Eddie Jones' reign as head coach.
Liverpool's Salah told Sky Sports that he is "addicted" to Blitz chess - a fast-paced variant of the game - and plays online every day under an anonymous online profile.
Like Salah, tens of millions of people play online, with participation numbers surging since the coronavirus pandemic and the release of chess-based Netflix show The Queen's Gambit.
Now more than 25 million children study chess once a week around the world and 1.5 billion people have downloaded a chess app on their phone, according to Fide.
With high-profile stars like Haaland, Salah, Alcaraz and Wembanyama all promoting the game, it is only helping to boost the reputation and appeal of chess.
"Chess is somewhere between seven to eight times as popular [in the UK] as before The Queen's Gambit came out on Netflix in October 2020," says Pein.
"It is huge in most developed countries and Chess.com has millions of IP addresses in the UK, there are millions of people playing. Chess club memberships are also booming."
"It is reassuring that chess finds special places in their minds, heart and the way they prepare for their professional activity," adds Sutovsky.
This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.
