With only half the field able to qualify for the knockout stage of the 2021 Magnus Carlsen Invitational, the play over the first two days has been pleasingly pugilistic (suitably, in remembrance of the late great Marvelous Marvin Hagler). The champion - the tournament's namesake - has been playing very well, and has scored 7.5/10 so far. He has only lost one game, but it was a very important one, as it's to the tournament leader: Anish Giri! Giri, of all people, leads with 8/10, and this includes a five-game winning streak from rounds 3-7. With a sixth win coming in the final round of the second day, he enjoys a clear lead entering the final day of the prelims.
Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura are also in good shape with 6.5 points, Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave have 6 points apiece, and the last two qualifying spots are currently contested by three players with 5 points apiece: Levon Aronian, Daniil Dubov, and Sergey Karjakin. Below them are Ian Nepomniachtchi and Teimour Radjabov (4.5 points apiece), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Nils Grandelius (4 each), Jorden Van Foreest (3), David Anton Guijarro (2.5), and Alan Pichot (2).
There have been plenty of blunders, as one would expect from a 15'+10" time control, but overall the play has been very good. There have been model positional and attacking games, and plenty of nice tactics, too. I've singled out (seventeened out?) a number of games with varying degrees of commentary for your instruction, training, and mostly entertainment, here.