Audibly saying "I adjust"? (Knight touch)

So, Magnus dismissed the reporter's question today about touching/adjusting his knight.

But don't the rules say that the player has to audibly say "j'adoube" or "adjust" when adjusting a piece?  They can't just do it because it's "assumed" to be an adjustment, right?

Or does Mags feel he can get away without saying it, because "everyone should know" it was an adjustment?

Article 4.2 from the FIDE Laws of Chess reads:

Provided that he first expresses his intention (for example by saying „j’adoube“ or “I
adjust”), the player having the move may adjust one or more pieces on their squares.

It is not required to be audible; the player just has to be clear with the intention.  I have talked with TDs before about rules around adjusting pieces.  In practice, you don't even have to say anything or motion anything as long as it is clear that you are adjusting a piece (an extreme example being that a piece is halfway off its square). 

I am very confident in saying that Magnus moved and acted in a way that indicated he was adjusting the piece.  Additionally, there was no one else in the room when he made the alleged adjustment - who would he be saying "j'adoube" to?

I imagine the arbiters are nearby and can hear the players speak.  I think this practice of assuming is weird, because players at a lower level wouldn't get away with that.  It would cause a lot of conflict.  What's so hard about just muttering "adjust" before moving it?  And if they don't say "adjust", I guess it's left up to the arbiter to decide what is "acting in a way" that indicates adjusting... Just doesn't seem like a very exact rule, for a game with such precision.

Well, one additional thing to consider is that an arbiter's primary goal is to not interfere with a game.  The only reason an arbiter would have stepped in in is if Nepo made a touch-move claim - which is highly unlikely.  If Nepo did make a touch-move claim, there would only be two possible results:

• The arbiter would enforce Magnus make the move the touched knight.
• The arbiter would give Magnus a warning or tell him the desired procedure for making adjustments in this playing hall (more likely)

I understand the hesitation about "inexactness", but I would argue every sport and game is inexact.  Some of the "inexactness" is there to protect players from being destroyed by overly-rigid rule enforcement.

There's no flexibility when enforcing other rules of the game, like repetition or time controls.  Why should there be flexibility about this rule?  It's actually in the FIDE rule book by the way.  It says they have to audibly speak their intention to adjust the piece.

That reporter bringing it up at the press conference really annoyed Magnus.

There are degrees of flexibility depending on the rule.  Some rules are more hard-and-fast than others.  In the case of repetition as you bring up, there is a clearly defined measurement for whether the game is drawn by repetition (a pretty hard-and-fast rule).  However, there is room for flexibility in the arbitration process.

I would be interested in seeing the FIDE rule where it explicitly states it has to be audible since I believe I was referencing the most up-to-date handbook (but I could be wrong).

But this does bring up a (humorous) question: Magnus says "j'adoube" in the middle of a forest, and no one is around to hear it - did he really say it?

There's no room for ambiguity in the way it's worded:

I disagree.  There is ambiguity here.  In your own quote, it clearly just gives an example of intention and does not require the intention to be audible : "Provided that he first expresses his intention (for example by saying "j'adoube" or "I adjust")".

If you are then arguing that ambiguity is removed by stating, "Provided that he first expresses his intention", then this stone-cold interpretation of the rules does not hold up (in practice at least).  If a player adjusts a piece by simultaneously touching, moving, and saying "j'adoube", then the intent is clear.  I cannot imagine any arbiter or TD so strictly enforcing a touch-move rule in this scenario.  Again, at worst a warning would be given to the player.