‘It was a bit of a farce’: Magnus Carlsen recalls infamous jeansgate controversy ahead of Las Vegas challenge

Magnus Carlsen has opened up about the infamous jeansgate controversy, calling it a “bit of a farce” as he prepares for his next big challenge in Las Vegas. The Norwegian grandmaster spoke to The Athletic about the incident that saw him disqualified from the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York for wearing jeans.

“Honestly, I just forgot to change my jeans after a meeting before the game,” Carlsen said. “I put on a nice shirt and jacket, and when they told me I shouldn’t be wearing jeans, I thought, ‘Well, yeah, sorry, I just forgot to change.’”

He felt the demand to change clothes mid-event was unnecessary. “I thought asking me to change in between games when my attire was perfectly reasonable was probably not quite needed, but that’s OK,” he added.

Carlsen calls the whole saga a joke

Carlsen also described how ridiculous the whole situation became. “It was a bit of a farce considering how they were actually inspecting people’s trousers to see if they were jeans or chinos or whatever. That just tells you how silly the whole thing was.”

Carlsen pointed out that it was a 200-player tournament with people from very different financial backgrounds. “The main fact was they wanted players to be presentable at this tournament, even though it’s a 200-player tournament and people come from a lot of different financial backgrounds. I definitely met the standard of smart casual. To disqualify me over that was so stupid,” he said.

“I still am somewhat shocked at it, but no, it was not planned more than to the extent I realised there might be consequences if I didn’t change, but I didn’t really believe it. I never wanted to be an advocate for jeans, but there we are,” Carlsen admitted.

The five-time world chess champion will next be seen in action at the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event in Las Vegas, which has a prize money of $750,000. Carlsen won the last two legs of Freestyle Chess in Paris and Grenke. He also won the Norway Chess 2025 recently and will be high on confidence.