The defending champion said he quit as a “matter of principle” after being told to change his jeans.
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20241229085023/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98lkrdkz70o
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Maintaining fashion standards (nb: hygiene is a separate issue) in an intellectual contest is so fucking stupid. Who decided jeans were less formal than khakis anyway?
Come on now. This really isn’t a high bar and it only applies to the top tournaments. They will allow any legwear that is not jeans. Literally every professional sports has some form of equipment requirement and chess is probably one of the cheapest.
If you think world championship contenders can’t be expected to afford normal trousers, what do you think athletes spend on running shoes, baseball gloves and ice skates?
The difference is you need ice skates to skate on ice, you need baseball gloves to protect your hands, and while you don’t explicitly need running shoes you generally benefit from wearing a proper shoe for running if you are competing at a certain level. There is a function behind every one of your other examples.
What fucking pants you wear during chess is utterly meaningless unless you specifically want to create an air of superiority over people who do not dress “formally” (whatever that means). It is merely a means to exclude people who do not meet an arbitrary standard of appearance, which historically has just been a way to oppress lower socioeconomic classes and minorities. Fuck meaningless dress codes and props to him for standing his ground
This really isn’t a high bar
Just an unnecessary one, yes.
what do you think athletes spend on running shoes, baseball gloves and ice skates?
Last I checked, chess isn’t played from the trousers. Though maybe that would make it more fun, I don’t know.
Literally every professional sports has some form of equipment requirement and chess is probably one of the cheapest.
For real? You realize that those requirements are utilitarian, right? And if there are any relics leftover from old days, or bullshit rules that aren’t utilitarian, then they’re just as dumb as the OP situation.
Jeans are normal trousers.
In inpatient psych, street clothes are a common dress code. There’s some variation between facilities, but clean, untorn, no novelty tshirts, somewhat modest, no camou, are items you will often see in the line up. I started going to a new facility and failed to read this in detail due to habit and personal inertia. That’s on me. I showed up at this facility for over two years running wearing basic: black/dark non tshirt shirt, long cardigan (open front “jumper”, maybe, to you), and new grade looking deep indigo jeans. Black boots. Some variation, but that’s a normal street clothes look for me at work. You know how it is, some of us dress like we live in a type of street clothes uniform because we dislike shopping, multiples of the same items.
No one noticed I was wearing jeans for over two years, or if they did, they said nothing. Then one day, a new house supervisor saw me stooped over a computer out on unit at the nurses station, documenting before I was about to head out, and awkwardly approached to first clarify that I was wearing jeans and then to again, awkwardly, tell me jeans are not allowed at the facility.
Pause, two workers look at my legs, one says “Those are jeans?” Leans in, peers closely, then says “I guess they are.”
My point is, enforcement of non-egregious dress code violations are a choice. Those choices often rest with single individuals.
In neither case do these jeans disrupt the environment. In neither case were people harmed by the wearing of jeans. Nor are the trousers of choice tools required for standardizing the way a task/sport is completed. Offensive? Maybe to a prior generation in a “that is just not how things are done!” kind of way that is primarily fed by generational inertia.
For my part, unless I wanted to start wearing skirts, leggings (not appropriate for work imo), or wedding attendance level clothing, this change required me to go shopping.
Given how professional poker players dress, I’m not sure what the “sport” application of a uniform in chess is for, beyond “this is just how we do things”inertia.
Relevant links:
- FIDE statement regarding Magnus Carlsen’s dress code breach
- Statement by FIDE President on dress-code rules for Rapid and Blitz Championships
- FIDE dress code
Emphasis on the third link, on what’s not allowed: sneakers, jeans, t-shirts. Under the claim that it’s “to maintain the high standards of the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships”… yeah, nah, non sequitur.
And more importantly it shows that the dress code in question is NOT about decency, or preventing cheating, or not distracting other players; it’s all about “if you dress casually we’re going to be assumptive trash and assume that you don’t take the competition seriously.” No wonders Carlsen walked away from it.
The article I read yesterday about it was skewed a little different.
He was out for lunch with a friend and went straight to the tournament after and forgot he was wearing jeans. He offered to change them for the next day but they said he had to do it now, at which point he said it was a matter of principal and walked off. I know I have no idea how the “societal elite” live but I don’t carry an extra set of pants on me when I go places.
As someone who accidentally ended up on a management level web cam meeting with a “death and taxes being the only thing you can count on” shirt, I understand not realizing what you are wearing in the morning. I have since made changes to what I allow myself to wear on working days
Wearing the shirt backwards would have worked in a pinch, unless the back had a guillotine and said “Eat the Rich”.
Here I am designing tshirts.
I very well could have run to my room and change the shirt. But it was a call from my boss so I answered and he said we were hoping on a call to discuss this crisis and I said ok. It wasn’t until I looked at my picture on zoom that I nice what I was wearing and at that point we were 20 minutes into the call. Anyone paying attention would have already seen the shirt and I figured it would be stranger for me to stop the camera and run and change the shirt.
I still don’t understand why it matters. Everyone in the call pays taxes and will die eventually, everyone in the call knows what a joke T-shirt is, and presumably they are all functioning adults who put aside their own quirks to pretend to be normal just like the rest of us. Them execs probably do some weird 50 shades stuff on the weekend.
It’s probably because I’m a software dev, but my zoom call outfits/hair/background get zero of my attention. An interview, sure, but if I feel like my shirt affects my standing on the team at all then I’ve certainly lost faith in my performance and personality.
Am I trippin?
I don’t know. He’s an adult. He knew the rules. Rules are worthless if they’re applied unevenly. You can argue a dress code is dumb but the time to argue that is not right before your match starts. He agreed to the rules by signing up, he can follow the rules.
And, I’m not rich but I’m sure I or a friend/family could have fetched a pair of pants.
I believe this wasn’t the first day of the tournament so it wasn’t right before it started.
I’m sure he normally would follow the rules but their is a saying “exception to every rule” for a reason. I don’t know the circumstances, I don’t even know the guy, I’m sure their were other ways it could be handled. I just think this article and this headline portray the event in the worst light.
The dress code is designed to ensure fairness and professionalism sounds like school officials saying we take the safety of our students very seriously whenever they’ve done something really stupid.
I could absolutely see a dresscode being enforced heavily if it was seen by the opponent during the match, then a choice of color or style could be done to mess with the opponent, but they sit at a table, the opponent can’t see his pants, as long as the pants would be acceptable for an IT guy in an office, they should be acceptable here
as long as the pants would be acceptable for an IT guy in an office
Jeans aren’t acceptable attire at any place I’ve done IT work for.