Chess - The Scotsman 06/06/2012

WHILE the joke has often been made that footballers aren’t quite up to scratch in the old grey cell department, a recent study claims to prove that top footballers are smarter than the general population.

Researchers at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute have claimed that top footballers score well on intelligence tests designed to determine creativity, cognitive flexibility, working memory and processing speed, and that the smartest in those categories tend to score more goals.

Norway’s first chess grandmaster, Simen Agdestein definitely falls into this category by being that rare breed who had a dual international career in chess and football. The former midfield dynamo for Linn Oslo – who also had a trial for Aberdeen, but declined an offer to stay at Pittodrie – in the mid-1980s was capped eight times for his country and played in the World Cup Finals.

In 1989, Agdestein was the world No 16 at chess and played alongside the likes of Garry Kasparov, while simultaneously his midfield skills on the pitch were being noticed by some of Europe’s top clubs. But sadly, on the verge of signing for a top German team in 1992, Agdestein was forced to retire prematurely owing to a serious knee injury.

We’re only days away from the start of Euro 2012 jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine – and as a chess curtain-raiser to the European Football Championship, last week Ukraine played Poland in a friendly rapid and blitz match in Lublin. So if you don’t want to see the final score, look away now: Ukraine 14.5-10.5 Poland.

S Fedorchuk - B Socko

4th Poland vs Ukraine, (1)

Sicilian Dragon

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6 6 Be3 Bg7 7 f3 0–0 8 Qd2 Nc6 9 Bc4 Nxd4 10 Bxd4 Be6 11 Nd5 Bxd5 12 exd5 Nd7 13 Bxg7 Kxg7 14 h4 Qc8 15 Be2 Nf6 16 h5 e5 17 0–0–0 Qc7 18 Bd3 Qc5 19 g4 Rh8 20 Kb1 Qxd5 21 h6+ Kf8 22 f4 Re8 23 fxe5 Rxe5 24 Rhf1 Ne4 25 Qb4 a5 26 Qb6 Qc6 27 Qd4 Ng5 28 Bc4 Qc7 29 Rf6 d5 30 Bxd5 Ke7 31 Qf4 Rf8 32 a3 Ke8 33 Qa4+ b5 34 Qxb5+ Ke7 35 Rc6 Qa7 36 Rb6 1–0