Magnus Carlsen's controversial jeans sells for Rs 31 lakhs on eBay

These were the same jeans Magnus Carlsen controversially wore at the 2024 World Rapid Championship.

Magnus Carlsen’s name usually conjures up images of chess genius and strategy, but his latest headline grabber has nothing to do with the chessboard. The world’s no #1 ranked grandmaster has sold a pair of jeans for ₹31,51,960 ($36,100) through an online auction with the proceeds going to the Big Brothers Big Sisters youth mentorship program.

What made these ordinary jeans a six-figure collector’s item? The size-32 Corneliani jeans became infamous after being involved in one of the weirdest controversies in chess history. Listed on eBay with a starting bid of approximately ₹6.93 lakh ($8,000), the auction ended on Saturday after a frantic last 30 minutes with over 30 bids and the winner will also have to pay ₹6,462 in shipping charges.

“It was my thought from very early on that this was a fun idea,” Carlsen remarked at the Chessable Masters. “It’s all going to a nice charity. Hopefully it’s something people are interested in.”

How a controversial dress code violation sparked debate in chess

The jeans got famous last December during the 2024 World Rapid Championship in New York when Magnus Carlsen wore them in breach of FIDE’s dress code. The arbiters fined the Norwegian and told him to change immediately. When he refused to do so, they excluded him from the rest of the games that day.

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Allowed to play the next day, Carlsen instead withdrew from the Rapid Championship altogether in protest of FIDE. The whole “jeansgate” affair was the topic of discussion for weeks. Carlsen eventually returned for the Blitz Championship wearing jeans after FIDE softened its stance, where he shared the title with Ian Nepomniachtchi!

Carlsen announced the auction on social media with characteristic wit: “The forbidden jeans – can now be yours. I am auctioning my jeans. A sentence I never thought I would write. But here we are.”

The world chess champion was most recently competing at the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025, securing third place. He will next appear at the Chess960 tournament in Paris, scheduled for April 8-15.

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