The reigning world champion in rapid and blitz chess, Magnus Carlsen, has been disqualified from the Rapid World Championship for violating the dress code. This was reported by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) on their social media accounts.
Carlsen was fined $200 for attending the tournament in jeans, which is against the established regulations. The rapid and blitz champion refused to change clothes, leading to his removal from the competition.
After his disqualification, Carlsen announced he would not participate in the blitz championship, which is set to start immediately after the rapid tournament, where he was in 41st place with five points. He mentioned he refused to change clothes on principle and stated that he would prefer to go to a place with "better weather."
FIDE were actually going after players as well 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. And it’s okay. They can enforce their rules. That’s fine by me. And my response is that fine, then I’m out. Like, f** you.
Previously, Russian player Ian Nepomniachtchi had received the same fine for wearing sneakers but changed his footwear and was allowed to continue in the tournament.
