Before Magnus Carlsen, Norway had Simen Agdestein who played Kasparov, Anand in chess and battled Maldini on football pitch | Chess News
Here’s a pop quiz question for chess fans: name a chess player from Norway who became the youngest grandmaster in the world in his era? Here’s a hint to make the question a tad easier: he was also Norway’s first grandmaster. If your answer starts with the name Magnus, you would be mistaken. Meet Simen Agdestein, Norway’s first grandmaster, who went on to become Magnus Carlsen’s first real trainer, but not before he had brawled with world champions like Viswanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov and Boris Spassky on the chessboard, and evaded tackles on the football pitch from legendary Italian defenders like Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi. Agdestein is a rarity having played two sports at the elite level. He tried to straddle both sporting worlds that made heavy, yet completely contrasting, demands: one sport demanded stillness, another required constant movement. He was the Norwegian national chess champion at the age of 15, an International Master at 16, played for the Norwegian Under-17 football team that same year, became the world’s youngest grandmaster of that era …









