FIDE chief slams Magnus Carlsen for attacking Viswanathan Anand: 'If you want to attack someone, attack me'

International Chess Federation (FIDE) president Arkady Dvorkovich has hit back at world No 1 Magnus Carlsen for targeting senior official as well as chess legend Viswanathan Anand amid ongoing tensions with the Lausanne-based world governing body for the sport. The Russian politican and economist said that Carlsen should try and target him instead of Anand, adding that he should be thankful to the legendary Indian Grandmaster for his contributions to the sport.

Carlsen, who had defeated Anand in back-to-back World Championship battles in 2013 and 2014, had said that he was “not ready” for handling the responsibility of being deputy president of FIDE while accusing the organisation for “badly mishandling” the jeans controversy.

“If you want to attack someone, attack me. You can criticise anyone (in FIDE) constructively. You can argue with anyone in FIDE. No personal attacks… Really want to thank Vishy Anand for his contributions,” former deputy Russian Prime Minister Dvorkovich told ChessBase India.

Norwegian GM Carlsen’s feud with FIDE peaked during the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York City last month, where he was punished for violating the tournament’s dress code by showing up in a pair of jeans. Carlsen was unpaired from Round 9 during the Rapid championship, and his participation in the tournament was thought to have been over until FIDE made a U-turn and allowed him to continue competing by amending their dress rule.

The 34-year-old would later court another controversy by sharing the blitz world title with Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, with Carlsen being accused of match-fixing after a backstage conversation during the final showed the five-time world champion allegedly telling ‘Nepo’ to keep playing out draws until FIDE relented.

Commenting on Carlsen’s jeans controversy, Dvorkovich said the chess star was intentionally breaking rules.

“Carlsen’s words after the jeans incident were too much! It’s clear. He knows it, I know it. We should treat everyone with respect… Carlsen also acknowledged that some of his remarks were too much.

“Magnus knows he breaks the rules. He acknowledges it. It’s not completely intentional. We spoke to Magnus and Henrik (Magnus’ father) after what happened. They acknowledged that the dress code was broken.

“The chief arbiter did everything according to the rules. In this sense, there was no violation of rules from FIDE side. But the rules also allowed some flexibility. A decision could have been different even with the rules,” added Dvorkovich, who has been FIDE president since 2018.