In a surprise to absolutely no one even remotely familiar with modern internet behavior, Magnus Carlsen’s “jeans that broke chess” have successfully sold for over $36,000. The greatest player of all time was sanctioned last year’s World Rapid Championship for wearing them in a dress code violation, sparking a high-profile spat with FIDE.
Carlsen’s jeans have been on sale on eBay for a while now, and the bids continued to increase until finally peaking on the morning of March 1. The “JeansGate” jeans, as they’re called in the listing, ultimately sold for $36,100 after 94 offers were placed for them. How or why this happened is anyone’s guess, but celebrity items, especially those tied to major events, always sell for a ton, though I didn’t expect a pair of jeans to rack up such a price.
For the uninitiated, Magnus Carlsen was sanctioned for a dress code violation in the rapid portion of the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Championships, as he showed up in jeans to play. Spicily enough, he was having a meeting with the competing Freestyle Chess folks and didn’t have the time to change back into something more formal.
The world number one chess player said he’d change after the games were over, but FIDE’s arbiters would have none of it. Carlsen was not going to be paired for the next round, meaning an automatic loss and all but destroying his chances of retaining the title, which is why he decided to withdraw instead and floated that he’d quit all FIDE events altogether—an explosive statement he later walked back from.
It was also another tally to the long list of Magnus Carlsen’s controversies, which seem to always follow the greatest in chess. Even so, Carlsen just earned $36,000 from doing basically nothing, selling the crown jewel of the #JeansGate situation to an anonymous buyer.
Published: Mar 2, 2025 10:12 am