“These days the Norwegian is a bona fide celebrity, guest-starring on The Simpsons, modelling for G-Star Raw and making $8m (£6.25m) a year according to Forbes magazine. Such is Carlsen’s popularity in Norway that his matches were shown live on NRK, the equivalent of BBC One, with Wednesday’s tie–breaks breaking all previous records for Carlsen’s games. Three million of the country’s five million population watched at least some part of the match.” From the Chess World Championship. “If I had lost, it could have been my last world championship match.”

+ How Magnus Carlsen kept his World Chess crown … after 50 hours.