File image of R Vaishali.© X (Twitter)

World number one Magnus Carlsen on Monday criticised senior FIDE officials, including its deputy president Viswanathan Anand, for mishandling the dress code violation issue, calling them “not grown-ups” and stating that the Indian was “not ready for the job.” A couple of days after being disqualified from the Rapid event at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship for refusing to change into formal trousers, Carlsen was confirmed for the Blitz event following FIDE’s decision to allow players to compete in jeans.

Describing the decision to disqualify him as “draconian,” the Norwegian called the officials “robots” who are not capable of making independent decisions.

“Well, first of all, let’s go back to a couple of days ago. I did have some choice words for FIDE in my interview with you. And I would say that it was a bit imprecise. I definitely mean it when it comes to certain people in FIDE. No question about it,” the Norwegian told ‘Take Take Take, an app he is co-promoting.

“I think the situation was badly mishandled on their side. And I was about to basically book my plane tickets and get out of here. My father said that we should maybe wait until the morning to make a decision to speak to the FIDE president, Arkady Dvorkovich, whom we have a good relationship with.

“Him actually being asleep when this happened meant there were no grown-ups in FIDE. You can argue whether I am or not. But there was nobody even slightly willing to have a conversation.” The five-time world champion was fined USD 200 for wearing jeans, which was “explicitly prohibited” under the original tournament regulations. The Norwegian was also disqualified by chief arbiter Alex Holowczak after he refused to change his attire ahead of the ninth round.

“We had long conversations with Anand yesterday and others, which generally didn’t lead anywhere. It was generally the same answers, that arbiters are basically robots who cannot think on their own, who have no way to even deviate slightly from… I don’t even know if I broke any rules. I still haven’t gotten a clear answer on that,” said Carlsen.

“They were saying that jeans were generally not allowed. If it’s generally not allowed, that must mean that there must be exceptions. And if I, with a decent attempt at an outfit apart from that, didn’t meet that exception, I don’t see what would, frankly,” he added.

Anand, himself a five-time world champion, had told Chessbase India that Carlsen “simply refused to follow the rules, left us with little choice.” “So I’m not even sure I broke any rules. But anyways, they decided to take that opportunity to pursue a very narrow interpretation of a rule. Apparently, there was no room for discussions or anything,” Carlsen continued.

“Anand said very clearly that he didn’t know that he had any opportunity to do anything past, you know, go with the arbiters’ honestly draconian decision of not pairing me. And that means that he was, for all his good qualities, not ready for this job. That’s what I feel.”

Carlsen had opted out of the Blitz section after his disqualification but will now defend his title. FIDE boss Dvorkovich announced the change in policy, saying “I took the decision to trial an approach to provide more flexibility to FIDE officials in judgements regarding the suitability of the attire.

“The principle is simple: it is still required to follow the official dress-code, but elegant minor deviations (that may, in particular, include appropriate jeans matching the jacket) are allowed,” Dvorkovich said in a statement on X. 

World number one Magnus Carlsen will return to the World Blitz Chess Championship here following FIDE’s decision to allow players to compete in jeans, a couple of days after disqualifying him from the Rapid event for refusing to change into formal trousers. The five-time world champion was fined USD 200 for wearing jeans, which was “explicitly prohibited” under the original tournament regulations. The Norwegian was also disqualified from after he refused to change his attire by chief arbiter Alex Holowczak ahead of the ninth round.

Announcing the change in policy, FIDE boss Arkady Dvorkovich said “I took the decision to trial an approach to provide more flexibility to FIDE officials in judgements regarding the suitability of the attire.

“The principle is simple: it is still required to follow the official dress-code, but elegant minor deviations (that may, in particular, include appropriate jeans matching the jacket) are allowed,” Dvorkovich said in a statement on X.

After disqualification in the Rapid event, Carlsen had opted out of the Blitz section but he will now return to defend his title.

“FIDE is pleased to confirm that Magnus Carlsen will participate in the FIDE World Blitz Championship,” the statement read.

Carlsen had met FIDE vice president and Indian great Viswanathan Anand on the sidelines of the tournament on Sunday.

“FIDE looks forward to continuing our collaboration with Mr. Carlsen and the global chess community to enhance the conditions and atmosphere of FIDE competitions, ensuring the best possible experience for players and fans alike,” the world body statement added.

FIDE said Carlsen’s return to the tournament will do a lot of good for the sport.

“This is great news for the chess world. We are delighted that the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion will be competing to defend his title and aim for another crown at the highly anticipated event in New York.” Carlsen also confirmed his participation in the event.

“I am playing at least one more day here in New York and, if I do well, another day after that,” Carlsen told ‘Take Take Take.’ “We had a lot of discussions yesterday and we have a good relationship with FIDE President Dvorkovich.

“Speaking to Dvorkovich and the main sponsor Turlov it did feel we could have some fruitful discussions and in the end of the day I decided to play,” Carlsen said during the interview, a portion of which was published in FIDE’s X account.

FIDE’s deputy president Viswanathan Anand had said that the governing body didn’t want to disqualify Carlsen but was left with no option after the Norwegian refused to follow rules.

Viswanathan Anand said FIDE didn’t want to disqualify Magnus Carlsen the event.© FIDE

Chess World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen endured an ugly exit from the World Rapid Chess Championship in New York City, as he was disqualified by FIDE for not following the required dress code for the tournament. Carlsen had shown up in jeans, which was not part of the dress code, and after refusing to change immediately, Carlsen was disqualified for “repeated violations”. In an interview after the disqualification, Carlsen let his displeasure be known, even going on an expletive-filled rant regarding the rule and the principle.

In an interview with Take Take Take, Carlsen’s displeasure was quite evident.

“I had a good sleep, I had a nice lunch, but I barely had time to go to my room and change my clothes. I did not even change my shoes, honestly I did not even think about the jeans,” Carlsen said.

Carlsen stated that he had been asked to change after the third round, and was handed an initial USD 200 fine, but his request to change the next day had been denied. That’s when he was disqualified.

“At that point, it became a matter of principle for me,” Carlsen said. 

“Honestly, I’m too old to care too much about this. It became a situation where both don’t want to back down, and that’s fine by me. I’ll head somewhere where the weather is nicer,” Carlsen said on the disqualification.

Following his disqualification from the rapid chess event, Carlsen also stated that he had forfeited the blitz round as well. It is important to note that Carlsen was the reigning champion for the event.

“My patience with them was not very high to begin with. It’s okay, they can enforce their rules. My response will be, ‘I’m out, (expletive)”, Carlsen concluded.

An official statement was given by FIDE following the event.

“Today, Mr. Magnus Carlsen breached the dress code by wearing jeans, which are explicitly prohibited under long-standing regulations for this event. The Chief Arbiter informed Mr. Carlsen of the breach, issued a $200 fine, and requested that he change his attire. Unfortunately, Mr. Carlsen declined, and as a result, he was not paired for Round 9. This decision was made impartially and applies equally to all players.”

File photo of Magnus Carlsen and D Gukesh© AFP

World number one Magnus Carlsen has lauded D Gukesh for making the most of his chances to be crowned the youngest-ever world chess champion but has ruled out the possibility of a title showdown with him as desired by the Indian teen. The 18-year-old defeated defending champion Ding Liren in the 14th and final round of the match on Thursday to become only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to claim the coveted trophy.

“It’s an incredible achievement (by Gukesh), first he was down in the FIDE circuit, won the tournament in Chennai on demand, then he had an amazing performance in the Candidates tournament,” said Carlsen on a popular recap stream, analysing the match.

Carlsen said he was a bit surprised by how the match unfolded with most of the games ending in draw.

“This was something that was bit unexpected, a lot of us thought that Gukesh was a favourite to win the match but this was a game that never really took off, Gukesh was doing a great job of keeping the position alive and suddenly it was all over,” Carlsen said.

“It’s a really good thing for him, he has the title now for two years, winning this championship is extremely motivating so there is a very good chance that he is going to go for a great run of results now and probably become the number two player now and may be number one in the not so distant future,” he noted.

In the post-event press conference, Gukesh stated that he would love to fight it out against Carlsen at some point. The Norwegian maverick decided not to defend his title in 2023 after winning the world championship in 2013.

“Winning World Chess Championship does not mean I am the best player, obviously that is Magnus Carlsen. I want to reach the level Magnus has achieved,” Gukesh said.

“Obviously playing against Magnus in the world championship would be amazing, it would be the toughest challenge there is in chess. It is up to Magnus, but I would love to test myself against the best player in the world.”

But Carlsen ruled that out. “I am not part of this circus anymore,” said Carlsen in a general reference to world title clashes.

Carlsen also praised Gukesh’s team and said they did a good job.

“It is becoming progressively harder (to play mainstream openings) all main lines are analysed so they had to jump a bit,” Carlsen said of the opening choices made by Gukesh.

“I have generally kept it fairly risk-free with the white pieces, I have tried not to let things go out of control,” he added.

The world’s best player for a decade now was critical of Liren’s choices in the final game.

“There are lot of things that Ding could have done differently, Gukesh really made most of his chances,” he said.

“It’s a massive moment for India, it’s a combination of work that is being done there. This is not over.

“There are many more success stories to come, it was really heartwarming to see what it means to Gukesh, it was a very beautiful moment,” Carlsen summed it up.

India’s Bristy Mukherjee touched Magnus Carlsen’s feet© X (Twitter)

Uzbekistan’s young grandmaster Abdusattorov Nodirbek emerged sole leader.© FIDE

The GM Arjun Erigaisi-led Team MGD1 banked on their all-Indian star cast to clinch the silver medal in the inaugural World Blitz Team Championships, a club-based event conceptualized by world chess governing body FIDE and held in Astana, Kazakhstan. In the final against Team WR Chess, Erigaisi, the highest-rated Indian in Classic Ranking, upset former World Champion and World No.1 Magnus Carlsen on the top board in Round 1. But the Norwegian’s teammates won on the other boards to give the team a comfortable lead. Team MGD1 put up a strong fight in the second round to hold the eventual champions 3:3 but that was not enough to take the match into play-off.

“Beating Magnus Carlsen in any format is special and I really enjoyed playing against him. But more than that win, it’s the collective performance of the team that helped us with the silver medal was very special. The way we bonded and fought for each other makes this medal so special,” Erigaisi was quoted as saying in a release by Team MGDI on Tuesday.

The inaugural edition of the World Blitz Team Championships saw 40 teams compete in group-cum-knock out format in a one-day event that also carried a prize purse of 100,000 Euros. Each team had one female player and one amateur in their lineup.

Team MGD1, which also had GM Srinath Narayanan, SL Narayanan, B. Adhiban, former Women’s World Championships bronze medallist D. Harika and amateur Mihir Shah in their squad, dominated Pool B by winning all their seven matches.

In round 3, they demolished World Rapid Team Champions Al-Ain 4.5-1.5 to underline their claim for a podium finish and then lived up to the expectations in the knock-out stage.

“It’s a very proud moment for all of us that we have won a silver medal in the World Blitz Team Championships, beating some of the best players in the world. We at MGD1 are committed to the development of chess in India and that is one of the reasons we fielded an all-Indian line-up in Astana and the players rose to the occasion,” said MGD1 co-founder Sreekar Chennapragada.

The Indian outfit raced through the Round of 16 against Astana-2 and quarterfinals against Israel’s Ashdod Chess Club respectively to reach the last-four stage.

MGD1 once again faced Al-Ain in the semifinals and were taken to a tie-breaker after both rounds ended in a 3:3 draw. The Indians then raised the bar in the play-off winning 5.5-0.5 to set up a summit clash against WR Chess.

Team MGD1 had also won a bronze medal in the World Rapid Team Championships in 2023.