A CHESS champion has been booted out of the World Championships – because he refused to take off his jeans.
Magnus Carlsen was hit with a £159 fine by the world governing body FIDE on Friday.
The Norweigan grandmaster is a five-time world champion and one of the most recognisable faces in chess.
He was due to compete at this week’s World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York.
Carlsen claimed he had a lunch meeting prior to his scheduled match, so got changed in a hurry.
He told the YouTube Channel for the Take Take Take app: “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.”
FIDE claimed Carlsen had broken its dress code regulations, designed to “ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants”.
After being issued with the fine, the governing body claimed the World No. 1 was given him an opportunity to change into the correct attire.
Carlsen continued: “I got a fine which is fine.
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“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.”
World champion between 2013 and 2023, Carlsen stuck by his denim and opted instead to drop out of the tournament.
He continued: “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.”
With a grin, he added: “They can enforce their rules. That’s fine by me. And my response is that fine, then I’m out. Like, f** you.”
