Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the 2 greatest stars of soccer (soccer), might be seen enjoying chess in Louis Vutton’s newest marketing campaign, launched on Saturday. Chess followers shortly found that the place on the board is from an actual recreation.

“Victory is a State of Mind,” writes Louis Vutton alongside the photograph, through which Messi and Ronaldo are enjoying chess on a chequered Louis Vuitton suitcase. The image, which was shot by the legendary superstar portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz, was posted on Messi’s, Ronaldo’s and Louis Vutton’s channels and is already among the many most-liked Instagram posts.

Victory is a State of Mind. @Cristiano and #LionelMessi captured by @annieleibovitz for @LouisVuitton. In addition to an extended custom of crafting trunks for the world’s most coveted sporting trophies, the Maison celebrates two of probably the most proficient soccer gamers at this time. pic.twitter.com/AU9kPyI2wL

— Louis Vuitton (@LouisVuitton) November 19, 2022

Louis Vutton additional wrote: “In addition to an extended custom of crafting trunks for the world’s most coveted sporting trophies, the Maison celebrates two of probably the most proficient soccer gamers at this time.” The photograph was revealed a day earlier than the opening of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which is probably going the final world cup for each super-stars.

As it seems, the place on the board isn’t random—quite the opposite. Ronaldo and Messi are taking a look at a place from the sport Carlsen-Nakamura, Norway Chess 2017. It was GM Magnus Carlsen‘s second GM Peter Heine Nielsen who first pointed that out on Twitter, after which Carlsen commented on that tweet and the photograph: “Second biggest rivalry of our time mimicking the best.”

Second biggest rivalry of our time mimicking the best https://t.co/9ncVVgUnzs

— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) November 19, 2022

After the sixth spherical of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour in San Francisco, Carlsen gave the next touch upon the Louis Vutton photograph: “The unique is from my recreation with Nakamura in Norway Chess 2017, a really tumultuous occasion for me, I ended up with minus one and at a number of factors in the course of the event was I in danger of dropping to quantity two or three and even 4 on the planet. It was robust!”

Asked if the Messi/Ronaldo rivalry is akin to the Carlsen/Nakamura rivalry, the world champion mentioned: “Not actually, however he is good at a whole lot of the stuff that I’m good at, for positive. It’s not the worst comparability on the planet.”

Meanwhile, a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot has surfaced the place we are able to see each Messi and Ronaldo posing for the photograph whereas being interviewed in regards to the upcoming World Cup:

Yeah in order that they weren’t truly in the identical room. Still goated advert truthful play to Louis Vuitton 👏pic.twitter.com/8FkEO04y9A

— 𓂆 WB 𓂆 (@WalidBusquets) November 20, 2022