The chess game of Ronaldo and Messi

The work is considered the "photo of the century" of Ronaldo and Messi taken at the chessboard, recreating the position of the game between Carlsen and Nakamura at the Norwegian Super Cup on June 8, 2017. Messi sits on the side holding the black piece, corresponding to Nakamura, and Ronaldo holds the white piece like Carlsen.

Carlsen and Nakamura also alluded to the position in the picture to be similar to their game in 2017. Nakamura responded on Twitter: "I'm wondering why this position is so familiar." And Carlsen wrote: "History's second-greatest rivalry imitates the greatest rival."

The game of Carlsen and Nakamura took place in the third round of standard chess, the 2017 Norwegian Super Tournament. At no time in this game Carlsen was inferior to Nakamura. The Norwegian chess king even had a big advantage to win, but he went to weak moves, letting Nakamura counterattack and attack the citadel. In the end, Nakamura decided to give the immutable projection code for peace, or else he would fail. And Carlsen has no choice but to repeat the invariant.

The position in the picture of Ronaldo and Messi simulates move 38 or 40, so the flags of these two countries are the same. The position happened right after Nakamura had just given away the code. In the end, the game is tied after 40 moves, according to the invariant rule of three times, that is, a position is repeated three times.

At that tournament, Nakamura finished second overall, while Carlsen played unsuccessfully and was only penultimate. Armenian player Levon Aronian won the tournament, which gathered the top 10 players in the world at that time.

Carlsen and Nakamura are the two most famous figures in the chess village today. Carlsen is a five-time world champion, has held the title of Chess King since 2013, and has been number one consecutively since July 2011.

Nakamura has also been ranked number two in the world in standard chess, and is the reigning 960 World Chess Champion. The Japanese-American player is also currently the number one chess player in the world, and the most popular chess streamer. Nakamura's followers on Twitch or Youtube are approximately 1.5 million.

However, Carlsen once considered Nakamura a "pretty good" player. These two players have met 68 games in three chess genres: standard, fast and lightning. Carlsen won 20, drew 45 and lost only three games. Nakamura was born in 1987, three years older than Carlsen.

Messi is holding the record of winning 7 Golden Balls - the highest individual award of a football player. And Ronaldo ranked second with 5 awards. These two stars took turns winning the Golden Ball in the period 2008-2017, which has never happened in history. Messi and Ronaldo are both preparing for the 2022 World Cup - the world football tournament that could be the last of their careers.

Photos of Ronaldo and Messi were both posted on Instagram and other social networks used by the two players. After 16 hours of posting, the photo on Ronaldo's account received 29.6 million likes, ranking fourth in the most liked posts in the history of this social network. The photo on Messi's account also has 23.6 million likes, ranking ninth on the list.