Top chess player Magnus Carlsen is back in competition after quitting over dress code
Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen is at the World Blitz Championship — a competition he has won seven times previously — after going head-to-head with organizers over his refusal to change out of jeans in apparent violation of a strict dress code.
Carlsen, from Norway, is the world’s top chess player. He quit the World Rapid Chess Championship in New York on Friday after being fined $200 for wearing jeans to a match. He initially accepted the fine, but refused to comply when the International Chess Federation (FIDE) insisted he change his attire mid-match or be disqualified.
Carlsen forfeited his title. Russian grandmaster Volodar Murzin, 18, went on to win the championship.
FIDE is also the governing body for the World Blitz Championship, which began Monday, so Carlsen needed to resolve his dispute with the organizers to compete.
In a post on X on Sunday, Carlsen said “Oh, I am definitely playing in jeans tomorrow.”
Speaking with the chess channel Take Take Take, Carlsen confirmed he would be at the blitz competition, adding: “I think the situation was badly mishandled on their side.”
“I don’t even know if I broke any rules. I still haven’t gotten a clear answer on that,” he said. “They were saying that jeans are generally not allowed. If they are generally not allowed, that must mean that there are exceptions.”
In a statement released on Sunday, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich defended the dress code but said he regretted that the situation with Carlsen had “escalated without a resolution being found by both sides in time to prevent Magnus’s withdrawal.”
Dvorkovich said he’d decided to try out a more flexible approach to players’ attire.
“The principle is simple: it is still required to follow the official dress-code, but elegant minor deviations (that may, in particular, include appropriate jeans matching the jacket) are allowed.”
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