Magnus Carlsen’s Dress Code Breach: 'Some of His Words After The Jeans Incident Were Too Much' - FIDE President.
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Magnus Carlsen, the five-time World Champion, was fined and then disqualified from the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship after turning up in jeans and refusing to comply with FIDE's dress code.
Carlsen, who was fined USD 200 for wearing jeans, refused chief arbiter Alex Holowczak's request to change his attire immediately. As a result, he was not paired for Round 9.
This left the Norwegian frustrated, and venting out his anger, Carlsen, in a no-holds-barred interview with the Take Take Take app, had said, "My patience with FIDE was not very big to begin with. I'm too old at this point to care too much. They can enforce their rules. That's fine by me. My response is, I'm out, f** you. I don't think anything more has to be said."
While he did make a U-turn and return to play the rest of the tournament, Carlsen's harsh criticism did not go over well with FIDE.
Recalling the episode, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said, "I think everyone understands that some of his words after this jeans accident were just too much. He knows that, I know that, everyone knows that, but we found the way to move forward and it is good. I don't criticize anyone right now for that; we left this moment behind."
"I think that it is good that we found a solution and Magnus could participate in the blitz event that increased the attention to the tournament. He also went to the conference that we had before the blitz tournament, which is also good as it attracted many VIPs to the Wall Street Gambit conference," he told fidedotcom.
"I don't criticize anyone involved — neither our team nor Magnus, who acknowledged the violation and was ready to comply with penalties. So, I don't think anyone is really guilty in this situation. It was just a sequence of things that led to a suboptimal result that was not good for anyone. I personally would suggest a different solution if I would be there, but again it is not about criticizing anyone. It is just a lesson that we should learn. I know perfectly that Magnus did not have an intention to violate the dress code. It is the most important part for me," he concluded.
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