Caruana keeps things solid
He returns Niemann's king's pawn opening with his own king's pawn push, suggesting he's looking for a solid game above all today.
Defending the central pawn.
Niemann sticks to his trusty Italian Game, something that is not going to come as a surprise to Fabiano Caruana. Both players have rich experience in this age-old system.
Caruana goes for a quieter approach
This move has become more popular in recent times, even though historically it was less well-regarded as players felt that keeping the dark-squared bishop "locked in", rather than outside of the central pawn chain, was a bit too much of a concession to make. But modern computers have shown that this is just as good of a way of handling the position as more active plans, and so it's back in fashion!
Niemann tries to take advantage of the move
Caruana hasn't contested the center as much as the more mainstream alternatives do, so Niemann wants to support a central pawn push next.
He just straight up goes all-in here, weakening his structure and king safety in order to aggressively fight for the center as well as to throw his typically very well-prepared opponent off guard. It's a risky strategy, showing that he's prepared to lose the game to give himself as big of a chance of winning as possible. I think this just about answers the question in the pre-game intro, of whether Fabi would be looking to guide the game towards tame equality or not!
Niemann defends the center
He protects his attacked pawn, the most sensible move in the position.
Caruana ramps up the aggression
It's clear that Fabi's opening choice has come as a surprise to Niemann, who has already burned through ~15 minutes on the clock. Meanwhile, Caruana is still blitzing out his moves and clearly still in his home preparation. Will Hans be able to navigate his way out of this mess?!
The computer is not a fan of this one, for a very specific reason. It says that Caruana can now push the pawn forward, locking down the structure and setting the scene for a strong attack against Niemann's king. I'd be very surprised if this wasn't something that Caruana had studied, so the odds are good that we're going to witness a full-blooded attacking game from the get-go!
Caruana does play the strongest move on the board, and he must be absolutely delighted with the outcome of his opening experiment. Niemann has been truly caught out here, and this structure is a nightmare to face in practice. Caruana is likely to push his other pawn forward in the near future, setting the steamroller in motion.
Niemann expands on the queenside
It's hard to believe that this is going to help too much though, since grabbing space on the left flank is generally useful, but will take a long time to pay off. Whereas Caruana can already jump his kingside pawn forward, which is a much faster and stronger plan.
Caruana goes a slightly more cautious route, bringing his knight out first. No doubt he still plans on pushing the pawn up the board in the near future, but for now he wants to tidy up his development a bit.
Niemann continues his plan
The problem is, it just feels way too slow. He still doesn't have any real threat, so now Caruana can play his pawn push and generate that strong attack. Later, he can place his knight behind the pawn, getting really nice piece harmony.
Caruana builds his attack!
Fabiano goes for it. It's the right plan, and he already has a big edge here. Hans must desperately aim for counterplay somewhere else on the board, but for now his queenside advances lack a real punch.
Niemann continues to push, forcing Caruana's knight back. The problem is that this knight can eventually reroute itself back into the game on the kingside, and that's only going to add to Fabiano's firepower and propel his attack.
Caruana drops the knight back
One thing that Niemann might look to do now, is to try to generate some counterplay in the center. He could push his queen's pawn forward, aiming to soften up Caruana's grip over the central squares.
Niemann goes for counter-play
He does the right thing, trying to open up some lines on other parts of the board. He can't just stay still, as otherwise Caruana's advanced kingside pawns would lead to an eventual crushing attack against his king.
Caruana continues his attacking plan.
Niemann is getting a bit squashed here, with most of his pieces sitting on the back rank and lacking good squares to maneuver to.
The attack gathers steam
Caruana is doing all the right things here, building up an extremely strong attack. Long term, Niemann is probably fried here unless Fabi makes a big mistake when trying to break through. The problem for Hans is that he needs counterplay somewhere else on the board, and it's just nowhere to be found for him.
Niemann tries to activate some of his passive pieces. The knight might look to go to the square that his bishop is on in the future, from where it could pressure Caruana's center.
Caruana drives more pieces into play
The knight is likely heading further up the board on the kingside, from where it will be able to join the attack.
A nice move, forcing open some lines in a way that's a bit too dangerous for Caruana, if he accepts the pawn. Expect him to push his own pawn forward to keep things stable now.
Caruana does push forward, ignoring the sacrifice, and ensuring that his central control is solid and that Niemann's knight has no forward jump from where it could create nasty threats.
The drawback to Caruana's last move, is that now his central pawn is undefended. So Niemann is looking to bring his knight in to target it.
Caruana resumes the attack
Not only does the knight find itself on a much stronger square now, there is also the benefit that now Fabi's queen is guarding the central pawn. So Niemann's threat packs less punch.
Niemann brings his knight forward, taking aim at the central pawn and hoping that he can add to the pressure in the future with his other knight.
The computer really doesn't like this plan, but from a human perspective you can't fault Hans. It's hard to suggest anything better than trying to drum up pressure against Fabi's center.
This is the problem. Caruana can just support his center, while bringing more firepower to the kingside. He's doing a good job of balancing his two goals: defuse Niemann's counterplay, and attack!
All that Caruana really needs to do is shut down the counterplay for Niemann, before crashing through on the kingside. Pushing his pawn up one square makes sense now, as that will keep all the queenside lines permanently closed.
A surprising choice from Caruana, who gives Niemann the option to play pawn takes pawn on the left hand side. He must do this, in order to open up some lines and keep his chances of counterplay alive.
He doesn't go for the pawn trade when he had the chance, focusing instead on the central target. The problem is that Fabiano has several ways of meeting this, including to ignore it and go for an immediate breakthrough on the kingside, by pushing the pawn in front of his queen.
Caruana takes the most practical approach, eliminating the active knight before continuing his attack.
Niemann takes back.
This is a horrific situation for Niemann. If he ignores the pawn, then at some point Caruana will just play pawn takes pawn and open up a bunch of weak squares right around Niemann's king. But if he pushes the pawn, then Caruana will make a pawn break with his right-hand pawn and open up a key file that way.
Niemann decides that pushing the pawn is the lesser evil. The problem is that now, Caruana can push his right-hand pawn and open up the vision of his rook in the corner. And besides this, he's also got a lot of piece pressure against Niemann's shaky central pawns.
Caruana keeps advancing! Niemann has a very high chance of completely collapsing here over the next few moves.
Niemann's idea seems to be to be able to cover the second rank with his queen, in the event of a pawn trade. He needs to lend as much support to the kingside as possible.
Caruana snatches the pawn
His attack is going nowhere, so why not just grab the clean pawn, opening up his rook in the process. It's an enviable situation for him, as he is 'attacking for free'. And as Magnus once said in an interview, "that's my favorite kind of attack!".
He can push his pawn forward, with a double attack against both of Niemann's bishops. There would be no way for Hans to save his piece, though the one thing is that it does open up the position in the center. Will Caruana want to invite those kind of complications, or will he try and find a more controlled approach?
Caruana decides to keep things simple, overprotecting his pawn and banking on the fact that he should be able to crash through on the kingside sooner or later.
Niemann aims to open up lines
He's still in a desperate situation here, and so he pushes his pawn forward in order to try to crack open some lines to get some play going in the center and queenside.
Niemann continues to be in deep trouble here, as Caruana correctly spots the route for his second rook to join the attack. Sooner or later, Fabi is going to trade pawns on the kingside, opening up this key line.
Niemann has traded off a pair of pawns on the queenside, looking to loosen up the structure to try and find some fresh targets. He can now move his rook to hit Caruana's pawn, but the problem is it's just too slow as his kingside is on fire.
Niemann takes aim at the knight
Caruana can move in with check if he wants, but the cleanest path to victory seems to just double up rooks on the file. This game has gone incredibly smoothly for Fabi from start to finish, and he seems to be just a handful of moves away from a knock out.
He's ready to trade pawns next, opening up the vision of his rooks.
Niemann trades off one of the attacking pieces.
Caruana takes back, with the benefit that now his queen is a little better placed to join in the attack.
Niemann takes aim at the queenside pawn, but it's too little too late here. Caruana can finally take the pawn, when the last of Niemann's kingside defenses collapses.
It's going to be over very soon here, as there's no way to stop the horsepower on the kingside.
Niemann snatches a pawn, looking to invade with his queen and try to give some checks against Caruana's king.
Caruana ignores the threat of check, knowing that it's only a matter of time before they come to an end.
Niemann gives a final check
He is likely to resign after Caruana moves his king, as there is just no hope of getting any sort of perpetual check.
Today was a massacre, and not the type that the 22-year old Hans Niemann would have been hoping for.
Everything seemed to be pointing towards a strong result for Hans today. He came into the round with every reason to be feeling confident, having not yet lost a game in the tournament, and having shown excellent preparation and sharp calculation throughout the tournament.
Fabiano, on the other hand, had had a far shakier event (at least, for his stratospheric standards). He almost lost against the youngest participant in the field, 15-year old Andy Woodward, after an opening experiment went wrong right out of the gates. And yesterday, he had a winning position against Wesley So, but failed to convert it at the last moment.
But none of this proved to matter today. Caruana showed up today in a merciless mood, and he managed to catch Hans Niemann out with a very aggressive setup against the 22-year old's choice of opening, the Italian Game.
Caruana pushed his kingside pawns far up the board very early, and Hans - under immediate pressure - seemed to be unsure of how to react.
After a long early think, he settled on a plan of expanding on the queenside, and letting Caruana run his own attack up the board on the opposite flank.
The problem with this, however, is that Niemann's queenside adventures didn't yield much. While Caruana's kingside attack proved crushing, with a slow buildup of forces under the cover of his advanced pawns.
The result seemed to be a certainty as early as move 14 or 15, and Fabiano truly never gave Hans a chance to get back into the game.
A huge win for Caruana, who emerges from the round leading the tournament, and setting the stage for what could be his fifth U.S. Championship title!
A heavyweight clash
As the players sit down for the 7th of a total of 11 rounds in this year's U.S. Championships, there are four players who sit atop the leaderboard on equal points.
Two of these are the players in this match-up, Hans Niemann and Fabiano Caruana.
Fabiano entered the tournament as the top seed, given that he is the second-highest rated American grandmaster after Hikaru Nakamura, who is notably absent from this year's championships.
Overall, he certainly hasn't been having a bad tournament, with no losses and two wins being good enough to stay in the race for this year's title. But, there's definitely been chinks in his armor. He was caught out by Andy Woodward in the opening and barely salvaged a draw. While yesterday, he failed to convert a completely winning position against Wesley So, which would have been enough to secure the sole lead.
That's the kind of weakness that Hans Niemann, a player who thrives on momentum and narrative, will be seeking to make full use of. He's got the White pieces, and a player of his ambition is unlikely to play a timid approach, no matter how strong his opponent may be.
I expect we're going to see a sharp opening choice from Hans. If so, will Fabiano look to calm the waters and attempt to guide the game to a safe draw? Or will he embrace an all-out fight?