Chess Dress Code
A Look At The History of Dress Code in The World of Chess
The world championship match starts on 24. November and as preparation I was watching 5-time United States Champion Grand Master Hikaru Nakamura. He was commenting on an article about chess player where he pointed out that the leather jacket worn by Magnus Carlsen during a match may violate the FIDE dress code. So I decided to looked up the official dress code on the FIDE website to see what it says. But first, here’s a general summary of why, in my mind, chess players have always been classically dressed.
Chess has always been regarded as an intellectual pursuit since it’s inception in India as a tool to teach military strategy. It was for centuries a fascination of the upper classes due to it’s complexity and the vast amount of time it takes to master it. This fascination allowed for a new, albeit thin stratum of people to make their living by giving tutelage to the wealthy and the nobility and by association earn respect and admiration from the most influential and powerful people of their time, further reinforcing the perception of chess as a game for the intellectuals.
In the mid 19th Century, a certain class of affluent and multilingual chess players started playing tournaments at an international level with the very first being London tournament in 1851 and was won by the German Adolf Anderssen. That event laid the foundation for the modern tournament scene and soon after many more tournaments were held around the globe.
Given the general dress code during the 19th century and the association of chess with the higher classes and intellectuals it was almost expected that players and organizers to be dressed up.Look up any chess tournament and you will see immaculately dressed gentlemen playing or spectating the game. It was only recently with relaxation of dress codes that chess tournaments started allowing people to wear more casual clothes. Or so I thought.
Fédération Internationale des Échecs or FIDE was founded in 1924 and has been the organizing and governing body of international chess and as such they dictate the many regulations of hosting, organizing and attending tournaments which includes the dress codes so here is the paragraph regarding male players and their attire:
3.a. The following is acceptable for men players, captains, head of delegation.
Suits, ties, dressy pants, trousers, jeans, long-sleeve or shirt-sleeve dress shirt, dress shirt, alternatively T-shirts or polo, dress shoes, loafers or dressy slip-ons, socks, shoes or sneakers, sport coat, blazer,, Bermuda shorts, turtleneck, jacket, vest or sweater. Team uniforms and national costumes clothing
3.b. The following is NOT acceptable for men players, captains, head of delegation.
Beach-wear slips, profanity and nude or semi-nude pictures printed on shirts, torn pants or jeans. holes, denim shorts,short-shorts, cut-off shorts, gym shorts, unclean clothing, sun glasses, sport caps.
It is easy to see why it manages to cause confusion for one of the most accomplished players of all time in Hikaru Nakamura. This list is a poorly written list of items, trying to leave nothing to common sense and individual arbiters by differentiating between dressy pants and trouser, long-sleeve and shirt-sleeve dress shirts and dress shirts and loafers and dressy slip-ons; But it does so without actually proving a dress code. Meaning you could possibly be disqualified for skipping socks in one tournament and be permitted to play wearing only socks in another.
In addition, the fact that the regulation allows anything from T-shirts and shorts to suits and ties means there is no single standard dress code that can be applied to the event.
I admit, this thread started out as a quick reply to Hikaru Nakamura on whether or not Magnus Carlsen’s jacket violates the rule or not and the answer is, it depends entirely on the arbiters since leather jackets are not mentioned in the list. I now plan to write an article on the dress-codes and give an explanation as to their utility.
So if you plan on playing in a tournament in the next couple of days just put on a pair of wool trouser and a white shirt with a pair of leather shoes. and do not forget the socks.
Yours Truly,
Farid Mahnad