Carlsen to rejoin chess championship after jeans dispute resolved

Carlsen, a five-time chess champion, was fined $200 (£159) last week for breaching the tournament’s dress code.

He said he had been wearing jeans for a lunch meeting, and “didn’t even think about” swapping them for a different pair of trousers when heading to the tournament.

He had already played a few rounds wearing a shirt, a blazer, and jeans when he was told he had breached dress code regulations.

The grandmaster said he had offered to change his trousers for the next day, but was told he needed to change immediately, which he refused to do.

Carlsen then withdrew from the competition and said he would leave the city.

“Nobody wants to back down… I’ll probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer than here,” he said.

Announcing the changes to its dress code on Sunday, Fide president Arkadi Dvorkovitch said: “The principle is simple: it is still required to follow the official dress-code, but elegant minor deviations (that may, in particular, include appropriate jeans matching the jacket) are allowed.”

He said tournament staff will be required to help judge whether outfits fit the relaxed code, and added that he hoped players would not “undermine the festive mood” at the tournament on New Year’s Eve by “abusing this additional flexibility”.

In a social media post on Sunday, Carlsen said: “Oh, I am definitely playing in jeans tomorrow.”

Fide had previously said its dress code regulations were designed to “ensure fairness and professionalism for all participants”.