One year after jeansgate, Magnus Carlsen says he will be back ‘in tighter jeans’ at World Rapid and Blitz

World champion Gukesh D will lead a contingent of 41 Indians into the year-ending tournament, which will be held from December 25 to 30. There will be 28 men and 13 women from India competing in Doha, which means that 11 per cent of the field will be Indian.

Magnus Carlsen had exited the World Rapid Championships 2024 midway after being told he had violated the FIDE dress code for the event and was asked to change to formal trousers. (PHOTO: Magnus Carlsen X)

Ending months of uncertainty over his participation, five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen has announced that he will compete in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship in Doha next month. Carlsen’s confirmed his participation in a tweet on Thursday, where he also made a cheeky reference to the infamous jeansgate controversy that had seen him quit the World Rapid Championship mid-way before being persuaded to play in the World Blitz Championship.

“9 years ago I left the world rapid and blitz in Doha with two near misses and some viral rage moments. This year I hope to improve on the former, but regardless I promise to deliver on the latter. Also, I’ll be grinding the gym to fit into tighter jeans than last time,” Carlsen posted on his X handle.

Carlsen had quit the World Rapid Championship mid-way through the event last year after he was asked by an arbiter to change his jeans and wear formal trousers. Carlsen was later convinced to play in the World Blitz Championship, where he played in jeans and then shared the title with Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Meanwhile, world champion Gukesh D will lead a contingent of 41 Indians into the year-ending tournament, which will be held from December 25 to 30. With the Open World Rapid and Blitz and the Women’s World Rapid and Blitz being held at the same time, there are a total of 364 players competing, which means that 11 per cent of the field in Doha will be Indian. This includes Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Nihal Sarin, Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh.

The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship has a prize fund of over €1,000,000 spread across both the Open and the Women’s competitions.

A total of 233 players registered for the Blitz Open and 230 for the Rapid, FIDE said in a statement. Meanwhile, there will be 131 players in the Women’s Rapid and Blitz Championship.

Who are the top stars in action at World Rapid and Blitz Championship?

Besides Carlsen, some of the biggest names in the sport like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, Ediz Gürel, Alexander Grischuk, Vasyl Ivanchuk.

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Who will be the top Indians in action at World Rapid and Blitz Championship?

There will be 28 men and 13 women from India competing in the open sections across the two events.

Besides world champion Gukesh, the two events will also see Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani, Pentala Harikrishna, Pranav V, Aravindh Chithambaram, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, SL Narayanan, Sandipan Chanda, K Sasikiran, Abhimanyu Puranik, Pranesh M, Adhiban Bhaskaran, Leon Luke Mendonca, Mitrabha Guha, Bharath Subramaniyam H, Karthik Venkataraman, Iniyan Pa, Aditya Mittal, Sankalp Gupta, Raja Rithvik R, Harshit Raja, Goutham Krishna H, Harikrishnan A Ra, Sharan Rao, and Harshavardhan GB.

The 13 women from India are: Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Vantika Agrawal, Padmini Rout, Savitha Shri B, Nandhidhaa PV, Priyanka Nutakki, Isha Sharma, Rakshitta Ravi, Parnali S Dharia and Charvi A.