Eze does it: England footballer wins celebrity chess tournament

Eberechi Eze has followed up his starring role in Crystal Palace’s FA Cup semi-final win with another personal success: first place in an online celebrity chess tournament. The 26-year-old England international, who scored as Palace beat Villa 3-0 at Wembley last Saturday, won Chess.com’s four-day, 12-player amateur PogChamps tournament, involving athletes and content creators.

Eze beat the American YouTuber Sapnap 2-0 in the final, livestreamed on Twitch, winning the $20,000 (£15,000) top prize. Chess.com said Eze “showed that he’s as good at defending as he is at attacking”, taking advantage of Sapnap who “missed a key attacking idea, which led to an unfortunate brain fart and piece blunder”.

Eze is a relative newcomer to chess, having been taught the game by his former Palace teammate Michael Olise. He told The Athletic in 2023 that Olise, now at Bayern Munich, had introduced him and his brother to the game at the club’s training ground. “That’s when I started studying it, watching YouTube videos of the best chess openings, things like that. We’re always playing something at the training ground.”

Eze is one of several high-profile football figures to profess a love for the sport, with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah admitting in 2023 he was “addicted” to online chess. “I play every day, literally every day,” Salah told Sky. “But I am not saying my username. I put my name and some other numbers so some people they ask ‘are you Mo Salah,’ I say ‘yes,’ they don’t believe it, and say ‘you are lying.’ I say ‘yes, I’m lying.’”

Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, lost to the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, in 17 moves in a game that lasted five minutes in 2018. Carlsen, a big football fan who topped the official Fantasy Football rankings ahead of 7.3m others in 2020, said last year that there are “a lot of decent chess players” in professional football. “Martin Ødegaard plays a little bit … He’s not a bad player, but he’s kind of private about it.”

Eze and Palace will face Manchester City in the FA Cup final on 17 May, aiming to win the club’s first major trophy. The Football Association announced on Saturday that the game will kick-off at 4.30pm BST.