Magnus Carlsen was challenged at times by Vladislav Artemiev over the course of their two-day match, but overall he dominated on the way to victory in the 2021 Aimchess U.S. Rapid tournament. Artemiev finished in a very creditable second place, while Levon Aronian defeated Alireza Firouzja to take third.
On day 1, Carlsen got off to a 2-0 lead. In the first game, Carlsen enjoyed a long-lasting initiative with Black, and in time trouble and under heavy pressure Artemiev blundered and lost. In game 2, it was Artemiev who had the pressure most of the way, but Carlsen crawled his way out of danger. Almost out of nowhere, Artemiev had some minor technical difficulties, and his attempt to solve them resulted in a blunder that lost on the spot.
Artemiev had some time trouble issues in that game as well - and this may have been due in part to connection problems, too. If so, for once luck evened out for a player, and he was the happy recipient of a huge gift in game 3. In an equal position that seemed overwhelmingly likely to end in a draw, Carlsen started to make a move, then changed his mind and put the piece back where it started, so he could reevaluate the move and maybe choose a different one. What he didn't realize for quite some time was that he hadn't succeeded in putting the piece back to its initial square, but had moved it. This unintentional move gave up an important pawn for nothing, and Artemiev converted his advantage. He was not able to save the mini-match, however, as the fourth game finished in a well-played draw.
Artemiev therefore needed to win the second day's mini-match, but it didn't happen. In game 1, Carlsen had Artemiev under pressure for a long time, and - once again - in time trouble Artemiev made the decisive error and lost. In game 2 Carlsen made a serious misjudgment and was in trouble for a long time, and even admitted after the match that he expected to lose the game. But Carlsen was resilient and - you guessed it - Artemiev got into time trouble, and the game finished in a draw. Finally, Artemiev had to take serious risks with Black in game 3, as a single draw in the remaining two games would suffice to end the overall match in Carlsen's favor. Artemiev tried the Dragadorf, but it didn't go well. He admitting to missing Carlsen's defensive idea with 18.Bd4 (enabling him to meet ...a3 with b3 and to bring his king to a1), after which Black's attack was essentially over (and with it the game, mini-match, match, and tournament). Artemiev put up a good fight, but even if he had succeeded it would only have been enough for a draw. It didn't succeed, however, and Carlsen won day 2 with a 2.5-.5 score, winning both mini-matches.
Congrats to the world champion, who seems to be rounding into form as the world championship approaches. It will be more important to see how he does in the Norway Chess tournament starting in a couple of days. That's a classical event, and Ian Nepomniachtchi will be playing as well.
In the meantime, here are the Carlsen-Artemiev games, with my comments.