World No 1 and defending champion refused to change after being fined for wearing jeans on Day 2 of the rapid event and chose to exit the tournament
Bengaluru: In a dramatic turn of events on Day 2 of the World Rapid and Blitz Tournament in New York, world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen decided to exit the tournament after a dress code breach. The defending champion arrived at the Wall Street venue on Friday dressed in a shirt, jacket, and a pair of jeans. According to Fide regulations for the event, players are prohibited from wearing jeans, shorts, t-shirts, sneakers, or baseball caps in the playing area. Carlsen was fined for the breach and asked to change. He refused to do the latter and as a result, he was not paired for round nine. He eventually decided not to play the whole tournament any further and leave New York instead. The blitz event starts on December 30.

“Today, Mr. Magnus Carlsen breached the dress code by wearing jeans, which are explicitly prohibited under long-standing regulations for this event. The chief arbiter informed Mr. Carlsen of the breach, issued a $200 fine, and requested that he change his attire. Unfortunately, Mr. Carlsen declined, and as a result, he was not paired for round nine. This decision was made impartially and applies equally to all players,” Fide said in its statement.

“Earlier in the day, another participant, Mr. Ian Nepomniachtchi, was also fined for breaching the dress code by wearing sports shoes. However, Mr. Nepomniachtchi complied, changed into approved attire, and continued to play in the tournament.”

Carlsen – who won the twin titles last year – had a far from good start to the tournament on Thursday – losing in one round, and escaping with draws from lost positions in two others to finish on a 50 percent score.

“Obviously this has not been the best tournament for me. Yesterday (Thursday) was a difficult day,” Carlsen told Take Take Take, “I lost one game, could have lost a couple more and generally I wasn’t playing well…was a bit out of control. Honestly, I had a good sleep and a lunch meeting before I came here and barely had time to go to the room and change so I put on a shirt and jacket. Honestly, I didn’t even think about the jeans. I don’t remember if it was after the first or second game…that I got fined and was given a warning that I would not be paired if I did not go change my clothes. I said I’ll change tomorrow if that’s okay, they said no, you have to change now. At that point it became a matter of principle for me, so here we are.”

He hinted at acrimony with Fide over Freestyle Chess, a chess960 event backed by German entrepreneur Jan Buettner. which he has been promoting and playing.

“There was this whole thing where Fide was actively going after players to get them not to sign with Freestyle, basically threatening them that they wouldn’t be able to play the World Championship cycle if they played in Freestyle. So honestly my patience with them was not very big to begin with. It’s okay… they can enforce their rules, it’s fine by me and my response then is – ‘I’m out, f**k you.’

“Honestly, I’m too old at this point to care too much. I guess it goes both ways and no one wants to back down. This is where we are…it’s fine by me. Probably I’ll head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer than here.”

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