World number one Magnus Carlsen on Monday criticised senior FIDE officials, including its deputy president Viswanathan Anand, for mishandling the dress code violation issue, calling them "not grown-ups" and stating that the Indian was "not ready for the job." A couple of days after being disqualified from the Rapid event at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship for refusing to change into formal trousers, Carlsen was confirmed for the Blitz event following FIDE's decision to allow players to compete in jeans.
Describing the decision to disqualify him as "draconian," the Norwegian called the officials "robots" who are not capable of making independent decisions.
"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," the Norwegian 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. 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." The five-time world champion was fined USD 200 for wearing jeans, which was "explicitly prohibited" under the original tournament regulations. The Norwegian was also disqualified by chief arbiter Alex Holowczak after he refused to change his attire ahead of the ninth round.
"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.
Anand, himself a five-time world champion, had told Chessbase India that Carlsen "simply refused to follow the rules, left us with little choice." "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."
Carlsen had opted out of the Blitz section after his disqualification but will now defend his title. FIDE boss Dvorkovich announced the change in policy, saying "I took the decision to trial an approach to provide more flexibility to FIDE officials in judgements regarding the suitability of the attire.
"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," Dvorkovich said in a statement on X.