NEW DELHI: After Magnus Carlsen confirmed his return to the World Blitz Chess Championship following FIDE‘s decision to allow players to compete in jeans, the World No. 1 hit back at the body’s deputy president Viswanathan Anand.
Carlsen found himself at the center of controversy after refusing to adhere to the rules and was fined $200 for wearing jeans, which are “explicitly prohibited” under the tournament regulations.
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“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,” Carlsen told ‘Take Take Take.’
“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,” he added.
Carlsen stated that his discussions with Anand were unproductive, adding that the Indian was not suited for his position.
“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.
“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 further said.
“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, he was not ready for this job. That’s what I feel,” he added.
Anand said FIDE didn’t want to disqualify Carlsen from the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship, but the Norwegian left them with no choice after refusing to follow the rules.
“He simply refused to follow the rules, left us with little choice. Today this decision seemed emotional. Magnus was not willing to compromise,” Anand told Chessbase India.