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John McDougall
A champion chess player has opened up on how he was fined and kicked out of a tournament after refusing to change his jeans.
Magnus Carlsen is the world number one chess player and is a multiple world champion across several different tournaments.
He has won the World Chess Championship five times, as well as the World Rapid Chess Championship on five occasions and the World Blitz Chess Championship seven times.
The 34-year-old Norwegian boasts the peak rating of 2882 - which is the highest in history - as well as holding the record for longest unbeaten streak in the classical game at elite level, which stands at 125 matches.
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He had been due to compete at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York this week.
Carlsen had a lunch meeting before competing and changed into a shirt and jacket and even switched his shoes, but it did not occur to him to change out of his jeans.
It led to him being booted out of the Championships as a result and being handed a fine of £159 by chess world governing body FIDE for failing to adhere to its dress code regulations.
A clearly bewildered and stunned Carlsen spoke about the decision to the Take Take Take YouTube channel.
He said: "I put on a shirt, jacket and honestly like I didn’t even think about jeans, even changed my shoes.
"I didn’t even think about it. I got a fine which is fine. And then I got a warning that I would not be paired if I didn’t go change my clothes. They said that I could do it after the third round today. I said ‘I’ll change tomorrow if that’s OK, I didn’t even realize it today’, but they said, ‘Well you have to change now’. At that point it became a bit of a matter of principle for me."
He then opted to stick to his principles and refused to change out of his jeans, which led to him dropping out of the competition, as he discussed his plans following the decision and sent a strongly worded message to FIDE.
He added: "Honestly, I am too old at this point to care too much. If this is what they want to do, I guess it goes both ways, right? Nobody wants to back down - and this is where we are.
"It’s fine by me. I’ll probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer than here and that's it. It's okay, they can enforce their rules. That’s fine by me. And my response is that fine, then I’m out. Like, f**k you."