How To Dress for Chess

Should chess have a dress code? Chess Grand Master Magnus Carlsen defied the FIDE, the International Chess Federation, for violating the organization’s dress code by wearing a pair of jeans (my profuse apologies if you just fainted or spit out your morning coffee all over your newspaper) and was summarily disqualified from playing his opponent when Carlsen refused to change into approved attire. Magnus, who is currently ranked number one in the world and a five-time world champion, abided by the decision of the FIDE but also dropped an F-bomb in his remarks on the matter.

I realize that over the years, the sense of appropriate attire in social or public situations has degraded over time. There was a time, for example, when people actually dressed up to fly on commercial airliners or to shop downtown. Of course, there are some downtown areas now where wearing a holstered firearm over a hazmat suit might arguably be a more appropriate mode of dress. If you wear a black tie or an evening gown (depending on your gender preference) every evening for dinner you may find the wearing of jeans to play a game of chess ghastly and so, so…oh, what’s the word…plebeian.

Certainly, all private organizations have the right to set certain standards for behavior and appropriate attire but is the wearing of jeans to play a game of chess that egregious? Do jeans distract the other player or the audience or a televised audience that for the most part is obsessed with what’s happening on the chessboard?

Perhaps the attire of chess players should reflect the royal and medieval nature of the men and women on the chessboard itself (see the example in the photo above, which I have been assured is historically accurate). If Magnus—and there’s a regal name if ever there was one—appeared at the match dressed as a crowned king with a regal velvet cape, would this be permitted? How about in a full suit of armor? How about being dressed as a bishop? In some cities, dressing as a queen might even be the preferred attire.

If a chess contestant wore a glittery, sequined jacket that sparkled and a necktie that could light up with the words, “Check, Mate” would that be considered more formal and appropriate attire? Does the International Chess Federation need to loosen its dress code standards up a bit? I can understand not allowing players to wear shorts or speedos or flip-flops or overalls or furry costumes or body paint or a gorilla or T-Rex costume…but jeans? Really? Should each player, upon lifting a bottle of water to their lips during play, also be required to appropriately extend their pinkies, too? I mean, be consistent.