Magnus Carlsen slams FIDE deputy president Viswanathan Anand amid jeans row: 'Not ready for this job'

Chess World No 1 Magnus Carlsen hit out at Viswanathan Anand, the International Chess Federation’s (FIDE) deputy president, claiming that the Indian Grandmaster is not “ready for the job”. A couple of days after he was disqualified from the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships for violating the dress code, Carlsen had confirmed that he would playing the Blitz Championship after the FIDE relaxed the rules pertaining to players wearing jeans. Carlsen was also fined $200 for his dress code violation.

“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 said on the Take Take Take app.

‘Situation was badly mishandled’: Carlsen 

“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 said that his long conversations with Anand did not lead to any outcome. “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," the Norwegian said.

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“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 explained. Carlsen elaborated why he felt that Anand was not fit for the FIDE job. “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.”

“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," the five-time world champion said.

Anand had earlier said that the FIDE were left with no choice but to take action against Carlsen after he refused to follow the rules. “He simply refused to follow rules, left us with little choice,” Anand told ChessBase India.