Magnus pants were fine. He is absolutely correct that they were singling him out and you can look back to many recent tournaments to see the clear double standard.

    4.10.1. The dress code is strictly observed for the
    tournament and all the official events and press
    conferences.

    4.10.1.1. Dress code for men.

      Shoes: Oxfords, loafers, leather shoes or boots, classic
    suite shoes.

      Dark-coloured pants: black, navy, grey, beige, brown, in
    any case unicoloured. No bright colours.

      Long-sleeved light-coloured (white, light blue, beige,
    brown, etc.), blue or black shirt, in any case
    unicoloured. No bright colours.

      Dark-coloured jacket, waistcoat or cardigan with
    buttons: black, navy, grey, beige, brown, in any case
    unicoloured. No bright colours.

      Jacket, waistcoat or cardigan may be taken off during
    play.

    Tie is not mandatory.

    [...]

    4.10.1.3. No players with t-shirts, jeans, shorts,
    sneakers, baseball caps or inappropriate dress are allowed
    in the playing area. Any requests to wear national or
    traditional dress shall be approved by FIDE Supervisor.

    [...]

    4.10.9. If a player fails to fulfil his/her duties listed
    in Articles 4.10.1, 4.10.4 – 4.10.8, he/she can be
    penalised by FIDE Council as follows: 5% of his/her prize
    money shall be forfeited to the Organiser and a further 5%
    to FIDE for each breach. In cases of serious misconduct,
    the player may be disqualified from the event.

Refusing to match him with a competitor because of this, effectively preventing him to compete, was disproportionate regardless.

    4.10.1.3. No players with t-shirts, jeans, shorts,
    sneakers, baseball caps or inappropriate dress are allowed
    in the playing area. Any requests to wear national or
    traditional dress shall be approved by FIDE Supervisor.

It's entirely possible to read 4.10.1.1, conclude that blue jeans are fine, and then skim over 4.10.1.3.

However the Carlsens read it, after reading it, years will have passed. Carlsen didn't dress like he did after a studious read of the rules. He just put on some nice clothes that were no different from what he usually wears at tournaments.

Except he forgot a belt. A proper organiser would have offered to lend him one.

He's not a regular participant, Magnus is almost an institution of his own.

Either way, it's literally his job to follow the FIDE rules (which is unusual but true), and he's the best in the world at his job.

---

> "It's entirely possible to read 4.10.1.1, conclude that blue jeans are fine, and then skim over 4.10.1.3."

In all fairness I originally did the same, so I hear ya. But I'm not a pro at this.

He is also very much no in agreement with FIDE (a tradition for chess champions - see Fischer, Kasparov). And to be honest FIDE is on FIFA level when it comes to being dodgy as an organisation so it’s hardly surprising.

This is some combination of

- "I'm above the law"

- teenage rebellion

- protest against the system

4. 10. 1. 2. Dress code for women.

Classic shoes.

Trouser or skirt suit or dress, preferably unicoloured, but not mandatory

So, the logical conclusion is perhaps, no surprise, that FIDE don't really want to enforce a strict dress code, but rather want to promote the sport, and that translates differently into dress codes (or lack of them) for men vs women...

Meanwhile Arkady Dvorkovich, President of FIDE : https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1hntyjb/arkady_dvork...

Dvorkovich is putins puppet, covering for Medvedev when putin was pretending to take a break.

FIDE is an agency that exists to promote and develop chess.

Magnus Carlsen is the biggest draw in the chess world by far.

A minor dress code violation should have been dealt with a fine as the rules very much allow for the benefit of the game.

Also, I don’t think there’s a single player who would complain about that (well, other than Kramnik, but Kramnik complains that spectators breathe too loud and that’s cheating).

And then FIDE should have stepped back and thought about the recent growth in the popularity of chess, since the pandemic and thanks to the work of the likes of Magnus and Gothamchess and should have reconsidered the strict dress code rules in the first place.

Not very sportsmanlike behaviour, I must say (and I am saying this as someone who admires MC).

This one is hard to tell because not all of them have been alive at the same time. Morphy was really, really good, but in the 1850s.

Currently there's Ivanchuk, who is good enough to beat anyone but has no stamina so can't win tournaments reliably enough to be world champion.

Both parties could have handled this much better.

It's pretty black and white.

    4.10.1.3. No players with t-shirts, jeans, shorts,
    sneakers, baseball caps or inappropriate dress are allowed
    in the playing area. Any requests to wear national or
    traditional dress shall be approved by FIDE Supervisor.

Wish I had found that section earlier, but I'm less familiar with the chess regulations so it took me a bit to assemble all of the essential parts.

Well, you are the one who posted the quote, which I used as the basis for my comment. I thought I had read it twice over, and saw no reference to jeans, hence my question. Not statement, question. I did not make anything up.

Did you by any chance add the relevant section of the rules to your comment after I asked a question? The proper thing to do would have been to quote the relevant portion of the rules, instead of adding that later.

So, no. Apologies not accepted. Sorry.

When you're the third party and they trusted your quoting skills, that criticism is pretty weak.

It makes me wonder if he's been enabled by tournament organizers being lax about enforcement of the rules for top players, when it should be the opposite - those with the most experience should be held to the highest standards because they should know better.

Women athletes who are forced to wear what amounts to underwear when the men aren't - they have a valid complaint about uniform standards. This sounds like a bunch of whiny silver-spooned brats.

Everyone is saying it's literally their job to know the rules, but for players like Hikaru and Magnus, this is not their job in any meaningful sense, it's a hobby.

Also, Magnus isn't lookirg for sympathy, he's just saying why he can't be bothered complying with these regulations, there's not that much in it for him.

It's not his occupation in some ways. He makes a lot more money from every other venture, so there is not a major economic incentive for him. Likewise, he works with creators and platforms that pull in big numbers of engaged viewers.

For what it's worth that was the same organization - FIDE - that has made those terrible choices in the past as well.

for the most part theyre paying a lot for non-playimg middlemen to be in the way

What

I don’t read the license agreement of every bit of software or the privacy policy of every website, after all.

Likewise, I use GPL software daily, for a living - doesn’t mean I’ve ever read the license.

You need to care about the bits around the actual chess playing, but regulations for these things are overwhelmingly made of "play nice, be reasonable, don't be a dick" rules. If you try to play by those high-level rules, apologise if you break the nitty gritty of the low-level rules and fix things at the earliest opportunity, it shouldn't be a big issue. Also, things like dress code can easily be a "not an actual rule, just convention" sort of affair.

They’re professionals because they understand the game and are in the top 1% of people who play it. Not because they are the best at memorising rules. The latter group are people Who become umpires/referees instead.