Two men are sitting at a table in an amphitheatre in the middle of London. Both are deep in thought, straining to understand what has happened, what will happen next, and what either can do about it.

Champion Magnus Carlsen became a grandmaster at 13 and has held the world title since 2013, having shown an almost otherworldly ability for chess that once saw him play 10 people at once and beating them, writes Dan Buckley

Saudi Arabia is hosting a world chess tournament for the first time nearly two years after the country’s top cleric issued a religious edict against playing the board game.

Keano’s superpower might have been football, but he discovered another along the way in his magnetism. And how a nation hangs on every word he utters, or is uttered about him, writes Larry Ryan.