Wallace and Gromit is a festive TV staple in many a household – but it wasn’t their wrong trousers that scooped the post-Christmas headlines. That honour belonged to Magnus Carlsen, disqualified from a chess tournament in New York for wearing jeans.
The world No 1 – who also happens to be the only current chess player most people can name – had balked when he was told to change his attire before his ninth-round match at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. Walking out of the event, Carlsen shrugged that he would “probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer”. Instead, he returned three days later after the governing body, Fide, had agreed a more “flexible approach” to its dress code.
