World chess great Magnus Carlsen has quit a major tournament after a row broke out over strict rules.
The Norwegian grandmaster is the most high-profile name in chess, having won 64 major titles in the sport. The 34-year-old has already won 12 World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships combined in the past. Carlsen was defending both his rapid and blitz titles in New York on Friday when things took an unexpected turn.
Carlsen, world champion between 2013 and 2023, rocked up to the contest in jeans claiming he had a lunch meeting before the round. FIDE said in a statement that Carlsen breached the tournament’s dress code by wearing the jeans, where he then declined to change his clothes after the Chief Arbiter requested him to and issued him a fine of $200. In a statement, FIDE said its dress code regulations were designed to “ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants”.
Governing body FIDE made the request. He said he offered to change his trousers for the following day before being fined and told he needed to change straight away. In a statement, FIDE said its dress code regulations were designed to ‘ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants’.
However, after refusing to bow to the rules he reportedly responded ‘I’m out, f*** you’.
“I put on a shirt, jacket and honestly like I didn’t even think about jeans, even changed my shoes,” Carlsen told Take Take Take, an app for following chess. “I didn’t even think about it. First of all, I got a fine which is fine, and then I got a warning that I would not be paired if I didn’t go change my clothes. They said that I could do it after the third round today. I said: ‘I’ll change tomorrow if that’s OK, I didn’t even realise it today’. But they said, ‘well you have to change now’. At that point it became a bit of a matter of principle for me.”
The 34-year-old added that he would not appeal the decision, adding: “Honestly, I am too old at this point to care too much. If this is what they want to do. I guess it goes both ways, right. Nobody wants to back down and this is where we are. It’s fine by me. I’ll probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer than here.”
He had played a few rounds before officials noticed his attire, and then the drama began to unfold. FIDE chief executive, Emil Sutovsky, has since come out to confirm that Carlsen was not banned from the tournaments. He commented: “FIDE did not ban Magnus from the tournament. He was not paired in round 9. He can continue tomorrow. We gave Magnus more than enough time to change. But as he had stated himself in his interview – it became a matter of principle for him.
“Rules are applicable to all the participants, and it would be unfair towards all players who respected the dress-code, and those who were previously fined. The dress-code was known way before, and it was suggested by Athletes Commission, consisting of grandmasters. Said that, I am sorry for the situation that occurred – FIDE was very welcoming to Magnus and his family, and we never wanted it to explode. However I fully back a decision of the Chief Arbiter Alex Holowczak.”