Magnus Carlsen arrives late for chess game and still beats opponent with nine secs left

The Norwegian chess grandmaster impressed audiences with his quick-thinking chess skills - especially after arriving to the game in a hurry.

Magnus Carlsen, 32, turned up to a match over two minutes late, yet still managed to claim victory.

With just 30 seconds left on the clock, watch below to see how he beats his opponent:

Carlsen has a whole avalanche of accolades propping him up as a chess maestro.

The 32-year-old is the current reigning five-time World Chess Champion, four-time World Rapid Chess Champion, and six-time World Blitz Chess Champion.

That's pretty impressive.

In a fairly recent match against Vladislav Vladimirovich Kovalev, a 29-year-old Belarusian Grandmaster, Carlsen was surprisingly nowhere to be seen for the first two and a half minutes of game time.

This led Kovalev to make his first move without his opponent.

Finally, Carlsen can be seen emerging from the stands and making his way with 30 seconds left on his clock.

Walking at first, he then picks up the pace and begins jogging to the allocated table.

Wasting no time once he had taken his seat, Carlsen makes his first move - a middle pawn towards the centre of the board.

ChessBase India/YouTube

After a few minutes of the game, the two chess players were finally down to their last handful of pieces on the board.

Speeding up his moves as the clock ticked on, Carlsen finally beat Kovalev and the two end the match similarly to how they began - with a quick and silent handshake.

Carlsen is being dubbed a 'genius' for the quick turnaround, especially considering how late he was to arrive.

One user on TikTok commented: "The fact that he burns time adjusting pieces is such a flex in the chess world lol."

While others found Carlsen's piece-adjusting an 'audacity'.

Another person wrote: "The audacity of fixing the pieces with less than 30 seconds left on the clock."

ChessBase India/YouTube

Echoing a similar view, another revealed that they liked Carlsen's confidence - albeit a bit cocky.

"My man is super disrespectful," they posted, "I like it!"

Singing the grandmaster's praises, a fan compared Carlsen's abilities to that of a 'computer'.

They commented: "The man has a photographic memory. He remembers play for play every game he has seen.

He's a computer compared to all the other players."

Celebrating both parties, another congratulated 'both of these geniuses'.

Carlsen later explained in an interview that he was late due to being 'stuck in traffic' and that he was 'lucky because the round was postponed a bit'.