A five-time world chess champion has been disqualified from the World Rapid Championships – for wearing jeans.
Magnus Carlsen, who was once the youngest grandmaster in the world, was barred by the governing body FIDE for violating their strict dress rule.
Carlsen is no stranger to generating headlines for chess rule breaks, having infamously once accused a rival of cheating using wireless vibrating anal beads.
This time it was the 34-year-old who saw his tournament end on a bum note after being flagged for not wearing the correct attire.
Carlsen has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since July 2011 and his peak 2882 rating is the highest ever.
‘The Mozart of chess’ is also a reigning five-time World Rapid Chess Champion but has now surrendered the chance to claim a sixth title.
Carlsen was fined $200 for wearing jeans before Chief Arbiter Alex Holowzsak disqualified him for not changing between rounds.
The Norwegian reacted by withdrawing from the World Blitz next week – where he is the reigning seven-time champion.
“I am pretty tired of FIDE, so I want no more of this. I don’t want anything to do with them. I am sorry to everyone at home, maybe it’s a stupid principle, but I don’t think it’s any fun,” said Carlsen to the Norwegian broadcasting channel NRK.
Carlsen, world champion between 2013 and 2023, claimed he had been forced to change quickly for a lunch meeting before the round.
“I put on a shirt, jacket and honestly like I didn’t even think about jeans, even changed my shoes,” He later told Take Take Take.
“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.”
At the time of his default, Carlsen had looked to have missed the opportunity to retain his title anyway having only 5/8.
After eight of the 13 rounds, he was a point and a half behind the leaders having been defeated by Denis Lazavik while also being held to three draws on the opening day.
FIDE CEO Emil Sutovski has claimed that Carlsen would have been allowed to continue had he changed his clothes in the allotted time.
“FIDE did not ban Magnus from the tournament. He was not paired in round 9. He can continue tomorrow,” he wrote on X.
“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.”