Carlsen calls for FIDE president to resign – what happened?

One of the greatest chess players in history, Magnus Carlsen, remains a thorn in the side of FIDE. The Norwegian has once again clashed with the world’s leading chess federation.

Details: The former world champion, together with German businessman Jan Büttner, planned to launch a Grand Slam series of Chess960 tournaments (where players start with randomly shuffled back-rank pieces while pawns remain in standard formation).

The series was set to include five events per year, with players earning ranking points. The player with the highest points total would be crowned the new world champion of freestyle chess. However, FIDE refused to recognize the tournament winner as an official world champion, as the event falls outside its jurisdiction.

After two months of negotiations, no agreement was reached. In response, Carlsen called for FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich to resign, accusing the federation of trying to impose additional contracts on players who wanted to participate—something that was not part of the initial agreements.

Reminder: Carlsen was previously disqualified from a blitz tournament in New York for wearing jeans to his matches.