I was referring to the World Chess Championship, a title Magnus held until he declined to defend his title last year. This event is for the World Rapid Championship (and Blitz, which he also withdrew from), which is completely different. It’s practically an entirely different game. Nevertheless, he currently holds the title for both of those as well (and has for years). He’s also the highest rated player in the history of chess.

At any rate, FIDE has a history of this shit, it’s not limited to Magnus. There’s literally dress code drama every year. This is just the highest profile case. Most people cave. Magnus didn’t, because he can (there are other reasons too, as there’s a pretty significant rift between him and FIDE). He (and many other grandmasters) are getting really fed up with FIDE (for a lot of reasons more serious than this), and the dress code issue was the final straw where he decided to tell them to fuck off.

I’m far from a Magnus stan. I think he’s an incredible talent but also is very lacking in many ways and I wish he wasn’t so in bed with corporate chess interests. But FIDE is also a pretty corrupt organization with a ton of problems.