Viswanathan Anand on Magnus Carlsen incident: ‘He simply refused to follow rules, left us with little choice’ | Chess News

Deputy president of chess’ global governing body, Viswanathan Anand, has said that Magnus Carlsen left FIDE with little choice than to un-pair the Norwegian, which led to the world no 1 exiting the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship unceremoniously on Friday.
Arguably the world’s greatest player pulled out of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship because he was fined FIDE for violating the dress code rules wearing jeans on day 2 of the event.
“He simply refused to follow rules, left us with little choice,” said Anand to Chessbase India. “Today this decision seemed emotional. Magnus was not willing to compromise.”
Anand added: “Obviously it was not a step we wanted to take. We offered several options (to Magnus). The arbiter said that as long as Magnus changed his jeans before the ninth round it would be fine. But Magnus said that he was not going to do it on principle. He’s himself stated that it’s a matter of principle for him. The arbiter simply applied the rules and we supported that.”
Anand said that while he had not spoken to Carlsen personally after the incident, he had asked the world no 1’s father Henrik if there were any further clarifications.
“He stated that they were not going to concede. So I left,” Anand said.
The five-time world champion added: “Every other player is following the rules. Ian Nepomniachtchi was asked to change and he did so. That is why he was able to continue. The fact that Magnus simply refused to follow it left us with little choice.”

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