ladies and gentlemen Hans Neeman is back recently here in 2024 we saw him compete in the speed chess championship against Magnus Carlson and hikara Nakamura but now it is time for the United States Chess Championship and it got started with a bang the very first day of the event was a big moment for Hans for two reasons number one he has been publicly and privately at odds and in what the kids call a beef with the St Louis chess club for quite some time now he's been very public about the fact that he is not
receiving invitations to play events in St Louis now I've covered that subject extensively if you don't know about that and the hotel room incident and all emails and correspondents back and forth you can look that up after you watch this video but he has to play this event because he's one of the top five players six players in America so Hans demon now has a chance to become one of the youngest United States Chess champions ever and the second reason why the first day is big for him is he's playing Fabiano caruana the incumbent Champion
the best player in the US well 1 a 1B with Hikaru and Han's record against Fabiano in recent years is zero wins and five losses it's a massive first round for him now you may be wondering what's going on with lighting uh I'm recording this at 1:00 in the morning the reason is uh tomorrow I have to wake up very early and I have to drive long distance uh so I'm recording this overnight and I will po you know it will upload in the morning and I do just want to say I've been covering a
lot of things on this channel telling you what's coming up I'm excited to announce that I'm going to Europe to play against Pia kremling in a match and there will be a fan event on November 3rd in Stockholm tickets are now live and if they're not live when you click on this they will be live in a few few hours and if they're not live in a few hours they'll be live by the end of the weekend I promise but I was supposed to wake up and get the news so I'm recording this overnight They
Might Be Live link is in the description come see myself and uh Anna cramling Stockholm Sweden November 3rd if you're Swedish say hello if you're from other parts of Europe say hello uh it's going to be a fun time so United States Chess Championship Hans nean Fabiano Carana and uh we're off with a bang I can't wait I can't wait to see you know Hans has been hibernating a bit uh ever since the speed chest Championship uh he offered me a training camp with him and Vladimir karnick uh sadly I do not I I am
not particularly liquid uh at the moment you know so I I couldn't afford that training camp a little bit too expensive but uh very curious to see his growth and he goes back to the true and tried with E4 Fabiano plays E5 this is round one you're kind of easing into it you know if this was round eight or nine of the US Championship maybe Fabiana is going to play a Sicilian Defense but we have E5 Knight F3 Knight C6 and Hans plays the opening that he plays all the time which is the Italian uh
the Italian and the Spanish are the top two openings here everything else is kind of like meaningless unless you're a beginner in which case the ponzani is just absolutely fantastic you should totally play the ponziani these guys unfortunately know everything so we have Bishop C4 we have Bishop C5 Fabiano does not opt for Knight F6 which kind of forces white to play D3 uh I don't think there's anything in particular about Bishop C5 uh but here after castles something kind of interesting happens all right so at this point you know black basically plays Knight F6
D6 there are some lines black plays Knight F6 and castles and then plays a very quick D5 but overall it's pretty rare and what white does here is plays C3 D3 and then decide you know am I going to put the bishop on G5 am I going to advance on the on the queen side I'm usually going to put my Rook on E1 you can look at these Italians and look at them a 100 times they all look the same I don't mean actual Italians like actual Italians look pretty different for the most part um
but position Italians you know they don't all look like you know Luigi and Mario contrary to popular belief I know that might shock you uh but here Fabiano does something fascinating okay so he plays D6 like I just said you know you play D6 pawns will you know play some move play C3 obviously he's trying to go D4 um and you know now if black plays Knight F6 and white plays this move d4 uh basically black is going to come back and have pressure Fabiano now plays in a way I haven't seen ever in my
life ever he plays Bishop B6 all right he played D6 obviously he's going to go here he's going to oh he's going to play H6 he now plays H6 Hans plays Rook e one and Fabby plays Queen F6 I mean it's like we're back to 500 ELO I mean you see the queen come out to that square hoping for some form of a Scholars mate up until maybe like 11,00 Max uh and uh that's cuz it's a weird piece to bring out right like the queen in many ways is going to be shellacked walloped Bamboozled
I mean it's it's not really where the queen stands but clearly it's the prep now if you check the opening database I mean I almost no games obviously like Bishop B6 D3 H6 and then in this position to play Queen F6 is is uh insane uh but there have been a couple of people who have played it uh one of which is uh a Spanish grandmas by the name of Ivan Salgado and you know Fabiano uh I think has a person on his team Miguel Santos I think I hope I'm not making this up uh
and he's a very strong Spanish grandmas but he's not the guy I just said because not all Spanish people are the same contrary to popular belief so I mean this is this is cool but like okay let's see now Hans plays B4 you know Hans thinks for a little while and goes look I can play B4 A4 like part of my plan or I can play Knight bd2 but there's no reason to rush with Knight bd2 because I think black wants to go G5 G4 so by the time I'm rotating G4 now just simply wins
the game for black so he plays B4 oh my neck is so stiff I want to go to sleep um now if G5 which is sort of the point you play A4 if G4 you actually just play A5 and you trap the bishop so after A4 black will probably have to respond with the a pawn let's say A6 and now maybe H is considering things like well he can't play Rook A2 because then G4 is still strong but maybe he'll play like Bishop E3 or Rook F even Rook F1 is not completely stupid when white
doesn't really mind all of this he actually thinks the space Advantage is completely fine for him but when you when you play B4 you know you're ready for a fight all right now Fabi then plays Knight E7 and this is where it gets weird for me because fi spent nine minutes on Queen F6 I mean you never in a million years play Queen F6 offand but then to spend another 14 minutes on 97 I do have to wonder like what happened now he he's probably going to give an interview and everything he's going to analyze
his own game and I'm very curious to hear his thoughts like when I see a guy play Queen F6 I'm always like well you know you look at the engine you go did he have it memorized now he plays Knight E7 obviously that's sort of the the point but he you know he's got to use his G Pawn Hans tries to trap the bishop Fabiano answers back with A5 we have B5 and we have Knight d8 and a very simple continuation here for white which is the trade off the dark score Bishops okay F prob
he plays Knight E6 uh he's not taking he doesn't want to take because Rook E3 is good and by the way because you put your queen here fe3 is also maybe kind of good maybe Rook A2 Rook F2 hello I got a double attack coming on the F5 and you kind of you kind of facilitated it you know by putting the queen on F6 so he plays Knight E6 Hans just keeps improving Hans is a really fast player too like he plays quickly and I think that puts a lot of pressure on people Fabby puts
the Knight on F four so he's he's you know concluded the journey the Knight on F4 stands really well and Hans plays D4 very principled move spends a lot of time on this move attacks the center of the board says we're not going to trade dark squ Bishops and now you really just start wondering when is Fabby going to go G5 because he could have played it like three moves ago and it really does seem to be the kind of major idea of the position I don't know G5 I'm not a backseat gamer but it
looks very natural and the top move of the engine here in response is Bishop to D5 I mean I don't even I don't even maybe the guys saw that and maybe the point simply is like you have pressure and also you want to go Knight C4 and maybe you even want to go C4 C5 like in some positions not at the moment obviously but and Bishop D5 is a crazy move and like if black takes the center is opening up if black doesn't take you know then white plays Knight C4 and just really improves the
position I don't know I mean if the guys saw this then God bless them but um Fabby he plays Bishop G4 right so you know clearly 17 minutes did not go into this move he obviously considered a kingside attack and again didn't play G5 but again it seems like the point of the opening but okay Bishop G4 obviously is fine Hans kicks out the bishop and he doesn't play Bishop D5 because at this point it's stupid because black can Castle Queen side so that doesn't work but he goes for a similar idea which is Bishop
F1 which which which you know to to the untrained ey Bishop F1 is demented right like what what are we doing what you give this position to a beginner and you ask them what is the best move here for white out of a room of a hundred beginners not a single one will say Bishop f one out of a room of 100 people rated 2200 I'm not sure how many would say Bishop F1 like five Max it's a very hard move it's the best move it's one of the best moves Bishop B2 is the other
one Bishop F1 is just to go Knight C4 because that's the only way to make any progress is that if you want to trade off some pieces here you have to move the bishop back to F1 that's that's the only way you you have no other alternative you can't you know you can't play to and now my friends this is the final moment that Fabiano Carana had to go here and the position is in the balance he's got to go G5 hwn by the way might play G4 which is crazy because now black can play
H5 and then you can Castle long I mean like there are some crazy lines here uh after G5 uh I'm trying to think of some I mean by the way like for example G3 trying to kick out the Knight long Castle you can't really take the Knight because you get the open G5 and I you're still going to lose the bishop so I mean Fabby you know he had like four moments he could have wenton G5 he just never did and then not only did he not go G5 he castled he castled so now G5
is probably forever off the table and you know who is going to go for the G pawn attack first Hans plays Rook C1 just preparing the opening of the C file by the way another final moment the G5 can be played another final Moment Like Fab could have played it here on the previous move on the 13th move like on the eighth move on the ninth move Bobby again exits the position to put pressure on this pawn and here comes Hans Neeman who needed one invitation to play G4 so you know the KN on F4
was comfortable obviously FBI didn't like something so he kind of overthought it he's now down to 16 minutes versus 52 this man is on the ropes and I'm talking like poon versus Round Tree all right he's getting bombed all right he's ducking he's weaving but Hans comes in with G4 right around here I saw the game because I I was out I was you know I'm a busy guy you know I'm busy planning fan events in Stockholm ticket should be in the description uh no but seriously I and I was like what is going on
Bishop G6 Hans is now within Striking Distance of a decisive Advantage if he plays one move here which you would think after the move G4 is a pretty natural followup if you said G5 you're wrong but if you said H4 to go G5 you're right I'm threatening to straight up trap the queen like Queen is trapped you got to sack the Knight to escape now after H4 right like look Hans played G4 his next move he played instantly he played his next move instantly and it was genius but it doesn't work and that's probably what
Fabiano saw and after G4 and Bishop G6 and and and this Knight sacrifice the advantage is kind of gone but if he played H4 here I don't know what Black's next move is clearly Fabiano did because he saw this maybe he was going to take in the center of the board after you know after this but like G5 is still a threat so the you know the problem with this is black has to make way right he's got to clear a piece out so let's say black plays Bishop H7 white goes G5 Black Goes Queen
G6 and you lose the Central Pawn oh sorry sorry sorry sorry no you don't lose the Central Pawn because if Pawn takes you lose the bishop and you lose the pawn here I apologize now you have this and the queen is trapped again the queen is trapped again in this version the queen is trapped that's if Bishop H7 if the Knight Retreats then after something like G5 Pawn takes Pawn takes Queen d8 there are some lines the center Pawn can be taken but you still have to be careful white is still much better after something
like Bishop H3 okay much better like you don't have the Evel bar when you're playing right so it's very easy to say but H4 is a very juicy move and it is a move in the Wheelhouse of Hans demon but he calculates a line here he C this line is so wicked watch how like brilliant these guys are he sacrifices his Knight in the center of the board same kind of concept as you saw earlier black takes back Knight for a pawn D takes C5 Queen takes E5 Knight F3 the queen is trapped it has
to take right now Bishop B6 with a discovered attack on the queen you took your piece back and the queen is attacked and the queen is trapped it's trapped you can offer a trade but I have Bishop C7 Knight C7 Rook E7 this is unbelievable but fabis saww a step ahead and finds Rook d8 cold blooded move Fabiano is a bit of a content creator himself and a Gotham fan danger levels your queen is attacked you can ignore the threat by creating equal or exceeding danger and the wicked thing about this position is that after
Rook takes E4 Rook takes D1 both Rooks are hanging so after Rook d8 Hans plays Knight D4 and I have a feeling something here as you see the time spend started realizing wait a minute I don't my position is not as good as I thought because like for example Knight D2 Queen F4 Bishop E3 the queen gets out and I think Hans might have thought that after Bishop G6 and this crazy combination take take Queen E5 right like think about what Hans calculated from G4 he calculated G4 Bishop G6 Knight E5 D E5 D E5
Queen E5 Knight F3 when the queen is basically trapped it has to go to E4 Bishop B6 with the discovered attack on the queen but the cold shower Counterattack eludes you because you look at all of the things that I've just drawn on the board and that you know that might have escaped him and maybe he would have settled for H H4 would have gone totally different direction the engine is gasping for air for black if you play H4 it's crazy but he enter this wicked sequence maybe maybe Hans thought worst case scenario it's a
draw right worst case scenario I mean I'm up a pawn I have the two Bishops the position's pretty Dynamic but just B uh B6 and Fabiano now begins a consolidation process the bishop goes to B4 Fabby takes on D4 Pawn takes D4 Rook takes D4 attacking the queen attacking the bishop there was a Knight hanging by the way you go Queen E2 he takes the bishop takes the Knight takes the pawn takes the pawn takes nope doesn't trade the queen and now the position is around equal Fab's got a minute though can you believe it
a minute versus 36 Hans nean is so fast it sucks playing this guy he is so fast but the good news is even though he's going to put some pressure here Bob's good and remember that in this classical time format you get bonus time on the 40th move I don't care how ugly the Rooks are his Rooks are also pretty ugly they're what they got a little cross over there F6 Bishop G2 and uh Rooks are falling off the board Hans continuing to pressure Fabby gets his 30 minutes back and uh not much happened from
this point forward as we went to a rook end game Fabby went to the two-on one but this is an easy draw at this level you just have to know the fador position or you got to know how to not lose King and pawn versus King now I got to tell you after losing five games to Fabiano this is a great game for Hans to start the US Championship with I would argue he he drew from a position of relative strength and uh clearly the opening was going well and I think if this game was
played in a later round at which point his confidence was already there he might have had already like a win under his belt I feel like Hans doesn't go for any of this nonsense it's not nonsense but and then he goes for H4 if he plays H4 in this game he very well could get a win over Fabiano Karana imagine starting the US Championship like that for both of them so we're going to keep an eye on this tournament uh there's also the US Women's Championship there was a couple of decisive games there uh the
men uh yeah really started off today with kind of a you know they had some interesting games like this game was interesting but they made six draws so they're easing into it uh I will be covering this event maybe not every single day but obviously if Hans does something sick I'm going to cover it if he loses I'm going to cover it uh he's the most popular playing player in the tournament uh what do you want me to do right I mean it is a it we're we're straight up going to watch if he's going
to become the United States chess champion some of you may be wondering why Hikaru is not playing he doesn't want to that's the simple reason um he prefers to focus on streaming content creation uh and I think he's only going to play In classical tournaments that like help to qualify for the candidates I think that's what the story is so hikaro would be the top seed in this tournament we're not going to get to see hansy Carwin classical but uh good start for Hans it's 1:40 a.m. I'm going to go to sleep but if you
want to see Anna kremling and myself in Stockholm November the 3rd after my match versus Pia cramling I'm going to be talking about all these things every day not because I'm trying to hit you all over the head with promotion and advertisement it's so you know what's coming up so you you don't get there and go what I didn't know this was happening because I'm talking about it every damn day so if you need a friendly reminder here's what's coming up cool see you all tomorrow well it's already tomorrow see you all the next day
see you whenever get out of here
