Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the World Rapid Chess Championship and the World Blitz Championship after a conflict over the dress code.
According to CNN, world No. 1 quit the World Rapid Chess Championship on Friday, December 27, 2024, after the chief arbiter asked him to change his jeans.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) stated that the five-time world Rapid Chess Champion breached the dress code of the tournament by wearing jeans, and when he was asked to change it and issued a fine of $200, he refused to change it and left the championship.
After quitting from the world rapid, he also withdrew from the World Blitz Championship that he has won seven times in the last 10 years.
FIDE asserted, “This decision was made impartially and applies equally to all players.”
Carlsen could have returned to the tournament after changing like Ian Nepomniatchi, who breached the dress code by wearing sports shoes and continued to play after changing, but the Norwegian decided to walk away.
He told a chess channel, “I haven’t appealed, honestly, I’m too old at this point to care too much. If this is what they want to do … Nobody wants to back down, if this is where we are, that’s fine by me. I’ll probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer than here, and that’s it.”
Carlsen explained that he attended a lunch meeting before the tournament and “barely had time” to change, and “after the first game or the second game… I got a warning that I would not be paired if I didn’t go change my clothes. They said I could do it after the third round today. I said I’ll change tomorrow, if that’s ok; I didn’t even realise today. But they said you have to change now.”
Meanwhile, FIDE’s CEO Emil Sutovsky, in a post on X, called Carlsen’s claims a “lie” and said that they were “happy to cooperate” and only insisted on following the code of conduct.
