It was a good, close match, and as usual it's the world's #1 and classical, rapid, and blitz world champion Magnus Carlsen who came out on top. He had a hard time knocking off Hikaru Nakamura in their first round match, which went to an Armageddon game after White won all four of the rapid games, and that almost happened this time as well. Carlsen won game one with White, playing on forever with a minimal, purely practical edge of a good knight vs. a so-so bishop. Nakamura defended well for a very long time, but finally faltered on move 67 and resigning on move 84.
Problem? Not really: Nakamura won game 2 fairly comfortably. Carlsen made a known positional error in a popular line of the Queen's Gambit Declined, and Nakamura had a serious plus from then on. Carlsen was given one momentary chance to save the game, but it left as soon as it was given and Nakamura evened the match.
Carlsen showed his resilience by striking back in game 3. This time it was Nakamura's turn to show his unfamiliarity with an opening line - admittedly, a much more obscure one - and Carlsen won smoothly and convincingly. 2-1 for the champ.
Could Nakamura strike back for the second time in this match, and make it 4-0 vs. Carlsen with White in rapid games? Almost! Or rather: yes, he could, but he didn't. To his credit, he did achieve a winning advantage (with a lead on the clock, too), but hasty decisions on moves 41 and 43 allowed Carlsen to escape with a draw. It was a very good match, at least for the spectators. I doubt Carlsen will be even remotely pleased with his play in the event, despite his victory, though as I've suggested in one or two previous posts it's likely that all of the players will raise their standard as they get used to online games at non-blitz, non-bullet time controls.
Here are the finals games, with my comments; hopefully another strong online event will occur soon.