At some point late in his match with Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa - I think after the first tiebreak game, which he lost - Magnus Carlsen was asked by the interviewer if he had lost motivation after his win in the third rapid game clinched tournament victory. His (possibly approximate) reply: “I lost my motivation a long time ago.” It’s a tribute to his strength that even coasting, and even playing while listening to music and to Norwegian comedians on his headphones, he still managed to win the tournament, albeit barely.
Carlsen entered the match with Praggnanandhaa needing only to reach the blitz tiebreak to clinch tournament victory, and that’s just what he did. In game 1 he was losing but held on for a draw, in game 2 he was winning and Pragg held on for a draw, and then in game 3 he outplayed Pragg in an ending and won, guaranteeing nothing worse than a loss in tiebreaks. That’s just what happened: Carlsen was winning and then drawing in game 4 but decided to get cute, eventually losing. He was completely outplayed in the first blitz game, and in the second back-to-back blunders took him from a win to a loss. As a result he received 1 point for the match to Praggnanandhaa’s 2, and finished a point ahead of his young rival.
Alireza Firouzja also finished a single point behind Carlsen - the minimum distance given the tournament’s scoring system - after defeating Levon Aronian 2.5-1.5 in their match. The first three games were drawn, and Firouzja punished an Aronian error in game 4. He finished tied with Pragg, but in third place on tiebreaks.
In the other matches, Jan-Krzysztof Duda easily dispatched Anish Giri, winning the first two games and drawing the third to finish ahead of schedule. As for Hans Moke Niemann, his score remained “perfect” in the negative way, as he lost to Le Quang Liem 2.5-1.5, winning game 2 but losing games 1 and 4. Niemann scored no match points, but won games in 5 of his 7 matches, only going winless against Duda in round 1 and Firouzja in round 5. He was slightly overmatched this time around, and maybe not as psychologically prepared as he needed to be, but my suspicion is that if he gets to play in a similar event a year from now he’ll fare considerably better.
Here is the tournament site, here’s a selection of games from the round, and the final standings are below. (Recall that matches are worth three points, going 3 for the winner and 0 for the loser when the match is decided in the rapid games, and 2 for the winner and 1 for the loser when it goes to blitz tiebreaks.)
Carlsen 16
Praggnanandhaa 15
Firouzja 15
Le 12
Duda 11
Aronian 8
Giri 7
Niemann 0