Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian drew their mini-match today in the most proper way; to wit, by drawing all four games. Vladislav Artemiev and Alireza Firouzja also wound up splitting their match, but with more adventures and with one win per customer.
The match between the relative old-timers had a few interesting moments, but not too many, and in only one game - game 2 - did either player come anywhere close to serious winning chances. That was Aronian, whose exchange sac was both objectively and practically promising, and he may have missed a couple of chances to put Carlsen in real danger. In the rest of the game, and the rest of the match, nothing got too crazy, the evaluations stayed near the middle of the bar, and the 2-2 split was the appropriate result.
Artemiev started things off with a bang, winning game one, but after that he was under constant pressure from Firouzja. In game 2 Firouzja was close to winning with a valuable extra pawn, but Artemiev wriggled out and saved the ending. In game 3 Firouzja had a kingside initiative, but once again Artemiev's determined defense let him escape with a draw. It should be added that in both these games, and in game 4 as well, Artemiev fell far behind on the clock, and even if that's his usual modus operandi it can't help the cause.
Finally, in a must-win situation in game 4, Firouzja won - though he had nothing for a long time and was even losing at one point. Put another way, a way that more realistically represents what was going on, Firouzja offered a pawn sac for activity. The sac wasn't sound, but when Artemiev failed to respond in the right way his position went from won to lost in a single move. The critical moment came on move 29. Had Artemiev defended his rook with 29...Kf7, preventing White from getting a decisive grip on the 8th rank, he would have been fine (and then some). For example, if White swaps and tries to regain his sacrificed pawn, he'll come up short: 29...Kf7 30.Rxe8 Kxe8 31.Rc1 Bb3! 32.Qc3 Qxb6 33.Bxc5 Bxc5 34.Qxc5 Qxc5 35.Rxc5 Ba4 and Black should eventually win, though the more important thing is that he can never lose, barring a medical catastrophe.
After 29...Rxd8?? 30.Rxd8 Black's problem is that White not only threatens to take the knight on c5 - that problem was solved by 30...Nb7 - but he also threatens Bf8 followed by Rxf8#. That's why, after 30...Nb7 31.Ra8 Black couldn't play a move like 31...Qb5 (32.Bh6), but had to cough up the queen with 31...Qxb6 32.Bxb6 Rxb6. The material compensation was insufficient, and White went on to win.
The players will go at it again tomorrow, the only difference that the player who started with the white pieces today (Carlsen in his match, Artemiev in his) will start with Black tomorrow.