1. “With the years, Carlsen’s play has increasingly seemed to defy categories. He still goes light on the sort of deep opening study that helped make Kasparov and Anand dominant.

“If you want to attack hard, you have to prepare hard, which Carlsen has made clear just doesn’t float his boat.”

The New Yorker’s DT Max profile the cavalier youthful face of chess, yes chess, Magnus Carlsen.

2. “Nick Buckland has a USB stick embedded in his chest. At least, it looks like one…”

And so begins Ollie Williams‘ interview with the British figure skater for the BBC.

3. “During the handshake he reaches out with his free hand, as if to say, I’m open to hugging, but I’ll leave it up to you.

“You would like him. He would like you. You would like Tim Tebow because he actually looks at you, instead of the floor, or the cars rolling past on Santa Monica Boulevard, and his mind seems nowhere else but here, with you.”

Set aside some time to read Thomas Lake’s long long read on the redoubtable, yet unemployed, Tim Tebow in Sports Illustrated.

4. “He is having to improve as a coach too. At half-time last weekend, with his men rattled, tired and down 22-10, here was the perfect gauge of how Hansen has developed his own art.”

The Telegraph’s Ian Chadband gained an exclusive interview with All Black head coach Steve Hansen.

5. “You don’t know the context. That’s OK. Because here’s the most important thing you have to understand before writing a takedown of Suh: Context will only hurt your case.

“View Suh through the proper selective lens and he might look like your perfect villain, but give him a chance to explain himself, listen to what he has to say… all of a sudden, the definition of “villain” gets blurred.”

Jordan Conn of Grantland takes out the framework for a standard Ndamukong Suh takedown article, but examines it instead of Suh.