‘Magnus Carlsen’s words after jeans incident were too much’: Arkady Dvorkovich
FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich has spoken out about the fallout from the Magnus Carlsen jeans incident which saw the world’s greatest active player pull out from the World Rapid Championship.
After Magnus Carlsen turned up for the World Rapid Championship in New York sporting a pair of jeans, the World No 1 was fined and threatened to be unpaired from the subsequent rounds if he did not change into formal trousers. This led Magnus Carlsen to quit the event mid-way. He also went on an angry rant about FIDE and trained his guns on FIDE officials like Deputy President and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand besides CEO Emil Sutovsky.
Now FIDE chief Dvorkovich, who played a massive role in convincing Carlsen to play in the World Blitz Championship, has spoken out about Carlsen’s language and his personal attacks.
“If you want to attack someone, attack me. You can criticise anyone (in FIDE) constructively. You can argue with anyone in FIDE. No personal attacks… Really want to thank Vishy Anand for his contributions,” said Dvorkovich in an interview with Chessbase India.
“Carlsen’s words after the jeans incident were too much! It’s clear. He knows it, I know it. We should treat everyone with respect… Carlsen also acknowledged that some of his remarks were too much.”
While talking about the dress code, Dvorkovich said that they would discuss the code again, but added: “Magnus knows he breaks the rules. He acknowledges it. It’s not completely intentional. We spoke to Magnus and Henrik (Magnus’ father) after what happened. They acknowledged that the dress code was broken. The chief arbiter did everything according to the rules. In this sense, there was no violation of rules from FIDE side. But the rules also allowed some flexibility. A decision could have been different even with the rules.”
Dvorkovich said that he did not want to criticise anyone on the jeans controversy, including Carlsen. “Everyone makes makes, including FIDE and Magnus Carlsen.”
Even after Carlsen returned to play, there was controversy after he and Ian Nepomniachtchi agreed to share the World Blitz Championship title. Dvorkovich did admit that regulations were not perfect and that they had created a situation where the game could have gone on forever.
What had Magnus Carlsen said?
On the Take Take Take app, announcing his decision to quit playing in the World Rapid Championship, Magnus Carlsen said: “Honestly, I’m 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 me. I’ll probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer than here. They can enforce their rules. That’s fine me. And my response is that fine, then I’m out. Like, f**k you. I don’t think anything more has to be said.”
He then trained his guns on his predecessor Viswanathan Anand and said: “… for all his good qualities, he was not ready for this job.”
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