World number one chess player Magnus Carlsen has announced he will return to a major chess competition after the sport’s governing body agreed to relax its dress code.
Carlsen left the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York on Friday, where he was defending his title, when he was told he could not continue playing while wearing jeans.
The International Chess Federation (Fide) later said it would relax its dress code to allow “minor and elegant deviations” from its official list of acceptable outfits.
The 34-year-old has since said he will return to competition on Monday and will continue to wear jeans when playing.
Carlsen, a five-time chess champion, was fined $200 (£159) last week for breaching the tournament’s dress code.
He said he wore jeans to a lunch meeting and “didn’t even think” about swapping them for another pair of pants on the way to the tournament.
He had already played a few tricks wearing a shirt, blazer and jeans when he was told he had broken dress code rules.
The grandmaster said he offered to change his pants for the next day, but was told he had to change immediately, which he refused to do.
Carlsen then withdrew from competition and announced he would be leaving town.
“Nobody wants to go back…I’ll probably go to a place where the weather is a little nicer than here,” he said.
Announcing the changes to its dress code on Sunday, Fide President Arkady Dvorkovich said: “The principle is simple: you must always follow the official dress code, but with minor and elegant deviations (which may include jeans). suitable to match the jacket) are permitted.”
He said tournament staff would have to help judge whether the outfits fit the relaxed code, and added that he hoped players would not “damage the festive atmosphere” of the New Year’s Eve tournament by “abusing of this additional flexibility.
In a social media post on Sunday, Carlsen said: “Oh, I will definitely play in jeans tomorrow.”
Fide previously said its dress code rules were designed to “ensure fairness and professionalism for all participants.”
Carlsen is a prominent figure in the chess world who has caused some controversy in recent years.
The Norwegian became a grandmaster – the most prestigious title in chess – at the age of 13 and has long been considered a maverick in the chess world.
In 2023, he settled a long-running dispute after accusing an American rival of cheating.
Carlsen made the accusation after being unexpectedly beaten by 19-year-old chess prodigy Hans Niemann in a match in 2022.
Niemann denied the allegations and filed a $100m (£79m) defamation suit against Carlsen, the website Chess.com and another US grandmaster.
Last August, Chess.com said the lawsuit was settled amicablyand that Carlsen now accepted that Niemann had not cheated.
