World No. 1 and … Fashion Model

Magnus Carlsen in one of the pictures for the G-Star Raw advertising campaign. Photo: Anton Cobijn/G-star

In what undoubtedly is a first, the world’s top-ranked player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who is 19, has taken on a second career: fashion model.

Wednesday, G-Star RAW, a Dutch clothing company that has three stores in Manhattan, rolled out an advertising campaign featuring Carlsen and the actress Liv Tyler.

NRK, Norways’s public broadcasting company, has photographs from the campaign and the photo shoot at which Carlsen posed for them. The Web site also includes a short video. According to the Web site, Carlsen said, “I think people will be surprised to see me like this. Surely just as surprised as I was when I was picked for this.”

As part of the fashion campaign, Carlsen will play a game against the world over the Internet on Sept. 10, from The Cooper Square Hotel in Manhattan. Three grandmasters, Hikaru Nakamura, the top American player, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the top French player, and Judit Polgar of Hungary, the world’s best woman player, will suggest moves during the game and people on the Internet will vote on the selections.

Source: NY Times blog