World’s top chess star reinstated after being booted out of World Championships 2024 for violating dress code
MAGNUS CARLSEN has been reinstated to the World Championships after he was booted out for violating the dress code.
The world’s top chess star was unable to compete in the tournament after refusing to take off his jeans.
The Norweigan grandmaster is a five-time world champion and one of the most recognisable faces in chess.
Carlsen, 34, was supposed to compete at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York,
However, due to a lunch meeting before his scheduled match, he was unable to dress in the proper attire.
As a result, he was handed a £159 fine by the world governing body FIDE on Friday.
Carlsen will now be competing in the tournament after the sport’s governing body agreed to relax the dress code.
Fide has said that it would allow for “elegant minor deviations” from its list of acceptable wear.
President Arkadi Dvorkovitch said: “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.”
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He also added that staff at the tournament would help judge if outfits fitted the new relaxed code.
He said it would aim not to “undermine the festive mood” at the tournament on New Year’s Eve by “abusing this additional flexibility”.
Carlsen has insisted that when he returns to the board, he will be wearing his jeans.
He became a grandmaster in chess at the age of just 13; however, he is widely considered the maverick of the sport.
In 2023, he settled a dispute after accusing Hans Niemann of cheating in a 2022 clash.
Niemann denied the allegations and filed a £79million lawsuit for defamation against Carlsen, website Chess.com and another US grandmaster.
However, it has since been settled out of the court, and Carlsen has accepted that his rival did not cheat.