“ I woke up my poor wife and I said … ”, the coach of Magnus Carlsen, Peter Heine Nielsen, recalls the infamous ‘jeansgate’ – first scandal

The World Championships and Blitz of Magnus Carlsen 2024 in New York were filled with controversy, the most sadly famous moment being the so-called scandal of “ jeansgate ”. The legend of Norwegian failures found itself in disagreement with Fide for a violation of the dress code during the rapid tournament, which led him to withdraw from the tournament and to leave everyone disconcerted.

Carlsen appeared for his fast games carrying a pair of jeans, an unauthorized outfit under the regulations of the Fide dress code. He was sentenced to a fine and asked to change, but the five -time world failure champion refused, declaring that he would comply the next day. Carlsen said that he had put his shirt and jacket and that he had not even noticed that he was wearing jeans. He added that he had told the organizers that he would change the next day, because he had not realized it before running on the site. The officials then asked him to change his jeans immediately, which prompted Carlsen to withdraw entirely.

Peter Heine Nielsen shares an interesting anecdote of Jeansgate Scandal

Carlsen’s longtime coach Peter Heine Nielsen recently thought about an interview with the German media Der Spiegelrevealing his reaction when he saw the controversy take place for the first time. The Grand Master Danish said that at the time of the incident, he was at home for Christmas breaks and saw the controversy break out at three in the morning.

“The world championship always takes place around Christmas and New Years, so I worked at home in Lithuania. It was three in the morning when I saw that Magnus was not classified for the next round. It was too funny. I woke up my poor wife and said: Look, can you imagine that? She quickly fell asleep, ”recalls Nielsen.

Despite the Jeansgate debacle, Carlsen returned to the Blitz championship, where he found himself again in the center of another controversy. The final against Ian Népomniachtchi of Russia sparked allegations of match fixing after a video surfaced showing Carlsen urging Nepomniachtchi to accept a series of prints if Fid refused to share the title.

While Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi finally shared the title, the incident divided the chess community, some criticizing their approach and others defending their practical decision.

Meanwhile, in the recently held tour of Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025, Carlsen suffered an overwhelming defeat against local boy Vincent Keymer in the semi-finals. He then obtained third place by beating the Grand Master of Chess Ouzbek Javokhir Sindarov. Keymar won the title by beating Fabiano Caruana in the United States in the final.