The defending champion said he quit as a “matter of principle” after being told to change his jeans.
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20241229085023/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98lkrdkz70o
SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Fc98lkrdkz70o
Too much drama with this guy…
I’m not into chess, I’m into pool, and when people like this guy make noise around pool instead of shooting pool matches fair and square, I stop watching.
Same reason I stopped watching John McEnroe tennis matches back in the days: I’m interested in the sport, not the drama.
If wearing jeans is the worst drama he is part of he seems like a great guy.
Lol what? Its the other way around. He just showed up normal and they made a big deal about nothing
It is NOT the other way around.
He chose to enter a tournament whose organizers impose a dress code, without complying with the dress code.
The dress code is silly perhaps and has nothing to do with chess. But if he didn’t like it, all he had to do is not participate.
I know fellow pool players who regularly forgo some venues on the circuit because they’re forced to dress in a certain way that’s to restrictive to movements around the table in their eyes and that’s fine. Their tournament, their rules.
…that’s exactly what he did, though?
Yes, but with unnecessary drama thrown in.
I find this take fascinating because, although I also like watching athletes and sports, I see the fandom and names as a huge soap opera cast. I just can’t keep up with any of it, the names, the injuries, the rivalries, the trades. It’s all just a bunch of banal meaningless drama to me that I will never have the enthusiasm to track. It’s all the same old shit from season to season with a rotating cast of hot young fools, just like General Hospital. As such I can’t talk sports with people. I can watch, but the events wash over me without the same meaning or substance. For that reason, flamboyant and over-the-top drama (like hot tempers, trash talking, and general mischief) that happens during play is actually interesting as long as it isn’t too unsportsman-like and doesn’t interfere with the game too much. The soap opera drama is boring, the sports is interesting, but the performance and affectations are spicy.
To be clear, your take is totally valid and I’m not really critical of it at all. I just have a different perspective.