Defending World Blitz Chess Champion and World No1 GM Magnus Carlsen decided to take back his withdrawal from the FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship 2024 and he will play the event which starts tomorrow!
After being banned from 9th round of the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship 2024 for dress code breach (wearing jeans), Magnus left the tournament and withdrew from both Rapid and Blitz events. However, after discussions with FIDE representatives in New York, Carlsen made a decision to play Blitz Championship and defend the title. He also revealed that he will play the Blitz Chess Championship in jeans.
Speaking for Take Take Take App, Carlsen said that the situation with the dress code breach was badly mistaken by some FIDE’s representatives, but decided to speak with FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich about the matter.
“I think him (Dvorkovich) being asleep when this went down, meant there were no grown-ups in FIDE. There wasn’t anyone even willing to have a conversation. We had long conversations with Anand (FIDE Deputy President) and others yesterday, which generally didn’t lead anywhere. (…) Anand said very clearly that he didn’t have any opportunity to do anything differently but to go with the Arbiter’s decision not to pair me. That means that he was, with all his good qualities, not ready for his job“, added Magnus.
He added that after discussions with Dvorkovich and Turlov, he decided, as a matter of principles, to play the Blitz Championship in jeans: “The only reasons that we had these discussions is that I absolutely love playing blitz, and that’s why I am back. I want to give the fans the opportunity to see it, but I don’t know if it’s going to be the last time. Who knows… As a matter of principle, I am definitely playing in jeans tomorrow“.
Being asked if the whole situation was tensed just because of the dress code or because of the other things including FIDE’s and Freestyle Chess conflict, Carlsen answered that multiple things affected his decision. “Yes, I think that FIDE have been very very difficult about that thing, but we’ve generally been able to reason that out with Dvorkovich. If we are talking about Sutovsky (FIDE CEO), well I don’t think that man can be reasoned with. I don’t know if it is a little bit ‘good cop bad cop’ thing, but apart from geopolitics people will have their opinions on that. Dvorkovich has generally been true to his word, Sutovsky not so much. (…) Why Sutovsky is still employed by FIDE – I have no idea.“
