The world’s top-ranked chess player, 34-year-old Magnus Carlsen, is no stranger to controversy. You might remember when he accused a 19-year-old chess prodigy of cheating by receiving secret messages by way of a vibrating butt plug. Carlsen, who is kind of the bad boy of chess if you want to be a huge loser about it, is back in the news after yet another reckless act of rebellion—he dropped out of a chess tournament because they wouldn’t allow him to wear jeans.
But don’t worry, chess fans! Magnus Carlson worked his way back into the tournament after the organizers of the 2024 World Rapid Chess Championship/World Blitz Championship bent the rules a little bit to accommodate “elegant minor deviations” to the dress code.
In other words, the head of the sport caved to the demands of its biggest star. Not that it’s necessarily wrong in this case, but that’s just what happened, to state it plainly.
They must’ve had the enlightening realization that who fucking cares what you wear on your legs when your whole event is built around people playing a board game. It’s like wearing a three-piece suit to play Candy Land.
For as much as snobby folks like to elevate chess as a brilliant mind war pitting Alpha brain geniuses against one another, it’s just Checkers if it was designed by Williams Sonoma. Do a funny old lady voice as you move your Queen and suddenly Chess becomes Dungeons & Dragons. Let’s all relax a little bit.
The International Chess Federation, or FIDE, deemed Carlsen’s attire inappropriate since the organization prohibits jeans, T-shirts, sneakers, and casual attire in general to maintain the dignity and grace of chess or some such shit like that. He was fined $200 and was asked to change. He refused.
By the way, Magnus Carlsen wasn’t wearing jeans and a “Who Farted?” shirt, or anything terribly inappropriate. He was wearing denim jeans with a collared shirt tucked into them with a blazer on top of that. If a real estate agent can get away with it, why not a chess champion?
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich smoothed things over with his game’s biggest star by loosening clothing restrictions a little bit so players can now wear jeans, just as long as they match the overall formal aesthetic.
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