The chess scene has been buzzing with drama lately, kicking off during the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship at the end of the year. It all started when Magnus Carlsen got fined and left out of a late round pairing for showing up in jeans, which FIDE rules don’t allow. When asked to change, he refused, saying he’d switch his jeans the next day. With FIDE standing firm, Carlsen chose to walk away instead.

He made his return at the Blitz Championship, where FIDE had also tweaked the dress code. But the drama didn’t stop there in New York, especially during the final match between Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Carlsen kicked off the final with two wins and just needed a draw to clinch the title. Ian fought back in the third game and leveled it up in the fourth. After a tense sudden death that ended in a draw, Carlsen suggested they share the title, but FIDE wasn’t on board with that. Thankfully, after some input from the FIDE President, they agreed to let Carlsen and Ian split the title. In a clip that went viral, you could hear Carlsen telling Ian to go for quick draws if FIDE didn’t want to let them share the win.

The viral video caused a huge stir on social media, with a bunch of chess Grandmasters and fans throwing accusations of match-fixing at him. Carlsen later took to X to clarify that his comments in the video were just a joke. FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky didn't hold back and publicly called out Carlsen for it.

Carlsen's longtime coach, Peter Heine Nielsen, who also worked with Viswanathan Anand before, jumped on X to defend Carlsen and push back against the Israeli Grandmaster's claims.

Nielsen went as far as to accuse FIDE of being under the influence of the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin.

No, you really don’t seem to care that FIDE is being used by the Kremlin for extreme war propaganda through Karjakin. There are several thousand tournaments happening in illegally occupied Ukraine, along with Putin’s greetings and orders to "neutral" Russian athletes. Plus, there are sponsors linked to Russia. It’s just wrong, he said.

By the way, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich is a Russian politician, having served as a former Deputy Prime Minister and an Assistant to the President of Russia.

During the jeans scandal in New York, Carlsen also called out FIDE for allegedly threatening players in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. However, FIDE CEO Sutovsky later denied those claims and suggested fans ask D Gukesh for the real story.

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