Pep Guardiola kept up with the progress of a penalty shootout with a difference this week. It was in the World Chess Championship between Norway's Magnus Carlsen, the reigning champion, and Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin.
Their best-of-12 match ended in a dead-heat so the title went to a four-game tiebreaker, a series of rapid and blitz games and Norway beat Russia. It is chess' equivalent of a penalty shootout which is guaranteed to produce a winner though hardly an accurate barometer of a team's skill.
The Manchester City manager is fascinated by chess because the participants have to think as many as 10 moves ahead. During a dinner in New York with former world champion Gary Kasparov, Guardiola was eager to know the secret to a truly great chess player. The answer was concentration — he who concentrates best and longest wins.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.