Chess: Carlsen disqualified in New York after refusing to change jeans | Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen, world no. 1, has been disqualified from the World Rapid Championship in New York for a dress code violation, refusing to change from jeans after an earlier warning. He is also withdrawing from the World Blitz, which starts on December 30.

Fide explained their decision in a statement while Carlsen said: “I said I’ll switch tomorrow… but they said you switch now, it became a matter of principle for me, so here we are! Honestly, I’m too old at this point to care too much for me. If that’s what they want to do, I’ll probably leave for a place where the weather is a little better.”

At the time of his default, Carlsen had scored 5/8 and was a point and a half behind the leaders, with little chance of retaining his title.

After eight of the 13 rounds, Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland), Arjun Erigaisi (India) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia) conducted on 6.5/8. Nine players on 6/8 include Russia’s 18-year-old Volodar Murzin, who dial no. 2 seeds and the American champion, Fabiano Caruana, and world no. 3 and speed specialist, Hikaru Nakamura.

The early rounds of the 11-round Women’s World Rapid were a triumph for rising American star Alice Lee, 15, who won all four of her matches and was the sole leader. However, Lee, who broke through last year, lost to top seed and reigning women’s world champion Ju Wenjun of China in a deciding pair in the fifth round.

After six of the 11 rounds, Ju was 5.5/6, half a point ahead of Alexandra Kosteniuk (Switzerland) and Kateryna Lagno (Russia), with Lee in the chase group on 5/6.

The field of 182 for World Rapid/Blitz includes 30 Americans while China has the top three seeds in the Women’s World Rapid/Blitz, which has 113 entries. The total prize pool is $1m for the open Rapid and Blitz, with $428,500 for the two women’s events.

It’s the first time the popular world speed championships have been held on American soil, let alone in the center of international finance. Rapid is defined as 15 minutes per player per game, plus a step of 10 seconds a move from move one, while Blitz is three minutes per player per game, plus a step of two seconds per drag.

Carlsen has already won five World Streams and seven World Blitzes in his illustrious career, capturing both titles in 2022 and 2023. list of his lifetime victories is impressively long, and underlines the task for new world classic champion Gukesh Dommaraju as the Indian 18-year-old, who is not competing in New York, aims to match the Norwegian’s achievements.

Carlsen’s chess curriculum vitae shows 64 major titles, all but nine above the board. Gukesh has only six so far – a World Championship, a Candidates, three Olympiad golds and a Fide Circuit, albeit with an age advantage of 16 years.

Rapid is now Carlsen’s favorite format and he scored again in last week’s Champions Tour, where most events were held online while the eight-player final pool was played across the board in Oslo.

It ended with a final between Carlsen and his old rival Ian Nepomniachtchi, whom he defeated in their WC match in 2021, where their Sixth game with 136 moves was the longest in World Cup history. This time there was a much quicker outcome as Carlsen won 4-1 including one 23-draw crush in the playoffs.

Carlsen is always alert to new developments and his 7 a3 echoed Gukesh’s novelty against Ding Liren from game 13 of the Fide World Championship match in Singapore, a draw in which the teenager overlooked a win.

Nepomniachtchi varied from Ding on early casting, but he missed the power of the rook raise 17 Rh3! This is an old and powerful strategy against the French, which I remember the shock of experiencing as Black in London 1948 against Oliver Penrose. Here White’s attack on the king quickly showed the irrelevance of the Russian queenside excursion on the opposite flank, and Carlsen’s last 23 Qg6! created the irresponsible threat of Ng5 and Qh7 mate.

World Rapid started on Thursday and continues at 19 GMT Friday and Saturday. You can watch for free with grandmaster and computer commentary and ratings on lichess.org and other major chess sites.

Between the three-day, 13-lap Rapid on 26-28. December and two-day Blitz on 30-31. December, Fide has organized the Wall Street Gambit, a conference to explore the fusion between chess and finance.

Its highlight will be a keynote speech by renowned economist and GM Kenneth Rogoff, who will talk about chess, artificial intelligence and economics. Caruana and India’s former world champion Vishy Anand will be present. Standard tickets cost $1,000while $5,000 VIP tickets, which include a blitz and selfies with Caruana, are already sold out.

No UK players have traveled to World Rapid/Blitz due to the high cost and low chances of a prize. For England’s experts, the annual is £10,000 Caplin Hastings Masters from December 28 to January 5 is the event of the moment. More than 100 entries range from at least seven 2500+ grandmasters to a long tail with over half of the field rated under 2000.

England’s youngest ever GM, 15-year-old Shreyas Royal, is the top home seed, while a likely contender for an international title is 21-year-old FM Alex Golding, who already has two IM norms and a 2400+ rating and has just won the traditional Richmond pre-Christmas blitz at Orleans Park School from an enrollment of over 100.

3952: 1 Nh6+ Kf8 2 Nf5! (threatens 3 Rh8 mate) g6 3 Qh6+ Kg8 4 Qh7+ Kf8 5 Qh8+! Bxh8 6 Rxh8 mate. Black can sacrifice his bishops and queen at g2 and f2, but this only delays mate.