Why does Carlsen hold out his hand even though the opponent hasn't arrived yet?

When the referee announced the start of the game day, Carlsen reached out to shake his hand even though there was no one sitting across from him, then pressed the clock without showing any emotion. A little later, Abasov appeared, shook Carlsen's hand, and began to march. "It was just a joke," Carlsen said, laughing in his post-game interview on Aug. 20.

Shaking hands is a mandatory rule before and after each game in chess. The two players will shake hands, then the black player will press the clock, and the white player will make the first move. Players who arrive after the game start will lose time, and Carlsen will often arrive after his opponent, even late. At the December 2022 blitz tournament, Carlsen was two and a half minutes late in his game against Vladislav Kovalev, leaving the clock only 30 seconds (with two extra seconds after each move). However, Carlsen still won this game despite holding black.

But in the must-win match yesterday, Abasov used Carlsen's own method. However, he is not too disadvantaged because this is a standard chess game, lasting many hours.

Videos of Carlsen's actions attract hundreds of thousands of views on social networks. Most of the comments said that Carlsen was funny. On Youtube, account ramachandra776 commented: "Carlsen rarely comes after opponents so he has to do something memorable." davidakinyele3578 responds: "Carlsen shakes hands better than opponents". And ryuzaki_ray wrote: "Now I understand why Carlsen is considered a chess genius, because he has the ability to talk to lost legends like Paul Morphy, Mikhail Tal or Bobby Fischer".

Carlsen does not necessarily reach out to shake hands before the opponent arrives. If Abasov arrives too late and runs out of time, the home player will be disqualified. However, there have been times when a player refused to shake the opponent's hand before the game and was ruled by the referee, such as the match between Ivan Cheparinov and Nigel Short in Group B of the Wijk aan Zee tournament in January 2008 in the Netherlands. The referee ruled that Cheparinov lost, but gave him the opportunity to publicly apologize and then reschedule the game the next day. Short agreed to this option, and won the replay.

Carlsen won 1.5-0.5 on aggregate against Abasov, to reach the chess World Cup final for the first time in five appearances. He will meet former world runner-up Fabiano Caruana or young Indian talent Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in the final from August 22.