But this week, that list gained its strangest entry yet: Chess now has a pants controversy.
The biggest fashion faux pas this side of the Met Gala unfolded in lower Manhattan on Friday, when five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen arrived at the upscale Cipriani Wall Street, host of this year's World Rapid Chess Championship, wearing something organizers considered utterly inappropriate. He was sporting a pair of jeans.
To FIDE, the game's world governing body, this was as unacceptable as moving a pawn three spaces.
Denim, FIDE said, is "explicitly prohibited under longstanding regulations for this event" and promptly fined Carlsen, one of the greatest chess players of all time, $200 for his infraction. When the chief arbiter requested that Carlsen change his clothes, he declined to do so. And as a result, the 34year-old grandmaster from Norway wasn't assigned a match in the following round. It was chess's equivalent of a one-game suspension.
Denne historien er fra December 30, 2024-utgaven av The Wall Street Journal.
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Denne historien er fra December 30, 2024-utgaven av The Wall Street Journal.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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