Top-ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen was headed back to the World Blitz Championship yesterday after its governing body agreed to loosen a dress code that got him fined and denied a late-round game in another tournament for refusing to change out of jeans.
Lamenting the contretemps, International Chess Federation president Arkady Dvorkovich said in a statement on Sunday that he would let World Blitz Championship tournament officials consider allowing “appropriate jeans” with a jacket, and other “elegant minor deviations” from the dress code.
He said Carlsen’s stand — which culminated in his quitting the tournament on Friday — highlighted a need for more discussion “to ensure that our rules and their application reflect the evolving nature of chess as a global and accessible sport.”
Photo :AFP
Meanwhile, Carlsen said in a video posted on Sunday on social media that he would play — and wear jeans — in the World Blitz Championship.
“I think the situation was badly mishandled on their side,” the 34-year-old Norwegian grandmaster said.
However, he added that he loves playing blitz — a fast-paced form of chess — and wanted fans to be able to watch, and that he was encouraged by his discussions with the federation after Friday’s showdown.
“I think we sort of all want the same thing,” he suggested in the video on his Take Take Take chess app’s YouTube channel.
“We want the players to be comfortable, sure, but also relatively presentable,” he said.
The events began when Carlsen wore jeans and a sport coat on Friday to the Rapid World Championship, which is separate from but held in conjunction with the blitz event. The chess federation on Friday said that longstanding rules prohibit jeans at those tournaments, and players are lodged nearby to make sartorial switch-ups easy if needed.
An official fined Carlsen US$200 and asked him to change pants, but he refused and was not paired for a ninth-round game, the federation said at the time.
The organization said that another grandmaster, Ian Nepomniachtchi, was fined earlier in the day for wearing sports shoes, changed and continued to play.
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