Chess: Carlsen disqualified in New York after refusing to change out of jeans

At the time of his disqualification Magnus Carlsen had scored 5/8 and was a point and a half behind the leaders. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, has been disqualified from the World Rapid Championship in New York due to a dress code violation, refusing to change from jeans, after a previous warning. He is also withdrawing from the World Blitz which starts on 30 December.

Fide (the World Chess Federation) explained its decision in a statement while Carlsen said: “I said I’ll change tomorrow … but they said you have to change now it became a matter of principle for me so here we are! Honestly I’m too old at this point to care too much. If this is what they want to do I’ll probably set off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer.”