The action on day 3 of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational was far less interesting than it was for the first two days. Most of the stratification had already taken place, so players at the top were generally content to maintain their placement. Hikaru Nakamura in particular took this to extremes, playing five games that went 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.dxe5 Nxb5 7.a4 Nbd4 8.Nxd4 d5 9.exd6 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 Qxd6 11.Qe4+ Qe6 12.Qd4 Qd6 13.Qe4+ Qe6 14.Qd4 Qd6 1/2-1/2. This drawing line has been known for a long time, and Nakamura used it with White in rounds 5, 11, and 14 while being the recipient in rounds 8 and 13. Others caught on, using it once in round 13 and twice in round 15, but by that point Nakamura had "improved" with the help of Magnus Carlsen (the champion had White): 1.e4 e5 2.Ke2 Ke7 3.Ke1 Ke8 4.Ke2 Ke7 5.Ke1 Ke8 6.Ke2 Ke7 1/2-1/2. There were other short draws as well, but there was some action too, particularly in rounds 11, 12, and 15.
Carlsen finished on top with 10.5/15, coming out half a point ahead of Anish Giri, who finally lost a game (in round 12 to Ian Nepomniachtchi) and drew his remaining games. Wesley So finished in clear third with 9.5, Berlin specialist Nakamura was clear fourth with 9, and three of the remaining four spots were occupied by players with 8.5 points apiece: Alireza Firouzja, Nepomniachtchi, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The last spot went to Sergey Karjakin on tiebreaks ahead of Levon Aronian, thanks to his win over Teimour Radjabov. (Had Radjabov won, he would have been part of the tie for the final spot; I'm not sure what his tiebreak score would have been compared to Aronian's.)
The remaining also-rans: Daniil Dubov (7.5), Radjabov (7), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (6.5), Jordeen Van Foreest & Nils Grandelius (6 each), David Anton Guijarro (4), Alan Pichot (2.5).
On to stage two, with the following pairings: Carlsen - Aronian, Nakamura - Nepomniachtchi, Giri - Vachier-Lagrave, and So - Firouzja. By now most of us are familiar with the way these online rapid knockouts work: each match consists of a pair of 4-game matches each day. If a player wins the day's match, he gets a point and his opponent gets nothing; if the match ends 2-2 they get half a point apiece. If the score at the end of the second day's mini-match is 1-1 (i.e., if both matches were drawn, or one player won the first day's match and the second player won the second), then there's a two-game blitz playoff followed by an Armageddon game, if necessary. Finally, a day's match can end ahead of schedule if a player clinches victory before the fourth game (by scoring 2.5 or 3 points in the first three games), or if (on day 2) a player has already clinched overall match victory (e.g. if he won the first day's match and leads 2-0 on day 2, because even if he lost both remaining games he'd still split the second mini-match and finish with 1.5-.5 victory overall).
Let's look forward to exciting games, and no draws of the sort mentioned above.