Top-ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen has left the World Blitz Chess Championship after refusing to change the jeans he was wearing during the competition, the International Chess Federation said.
The federation said in a statement on Friday that its regulations include a dress code that prohibits participants from wearing jeans to the event.
“The chief referee informed Mr. Carlsen of the violation, issued a fine of $200, and asked him to change his clothes,” the federation said in the statement published on its website. “Unfortunately, Mr. Carlsen declined and, as a result, was not paired for Round 9. This decision was made impartially and applies equally to all players.
The 34-year-old Norwegian chess grandmaster said in a video from the chess app Take Take Take that he posted on social media platform X that he had accepted a $200 fine. But he refused to change his pants before withdrawing from the competition in New York.
“I said: ‘I’ll change tomorrow if it’s okay,'” Carlsen said in the video. “But they said, ‘Okay, you have to change now.’ At that point, it became a matter of principle for me.”
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The federation said in its statement that the dress code is “designed to ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants.”
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Fellow participant Ian Nepomniatchi was also fined earlier Friday for violating the dress code by wearing sneakers, she said.
“However, Mr. Nepomniatchi complied, wore the approved uniform and continued to play in the tournament,” the statement read. “These rules have been in place for years and are well known to all participants and are communicated before each event.”
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