New Delhi: World No.1 chess player Magnus Carlsen hit back at the International Chess Federation (FIDE) officials, including the body’s deputy president Viswanathan Anand, over the dress code violation row. The Norwegian Grandmaster was disqualified from the Rapid event of the World Rapid and Blitz Championship for donning jeans, which doesn’t fall under the FIDE dress code rule.
Just a couple of days after the disqualification from the Rapid event, the 34-year-old has confirmed his participation in the Blitz event just after FIDE decided to relax the stringent dress code rules. After returning to the competition, Carlsen hasn’t left the opportunity to backfire against the global chess body, whom he labelled as ‘robots’.
“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,” Carlsen 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 (New York). 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.”
Carlsen refused to change his jeans during the eighth round despite request from arbiter Alex Holowczak, and was subsequently barred from playing the ninth round before the disqualification verdict was issued from FIDE. Anand said that the five-time world champion didn’t leave them (FIDE) with any option but to disqualify him for dress code violation, which wouldn’t set a great precedence before other participants. Carlsen was also fined USD 200 for the same charges.
“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.
“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,” he added.
Carlsen will have the chance to defend his title in Blitz competition.
World No.1 chess player Magnus Carlsen hit back at the International Chess Federation (FIDE) officials, including the body’s deputy president Viswanathan Anand, over the dress code violation row. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
