Fabiano Caruana defeated 19-year-old Hans Niemann in the fourth round of the US Chess Championship taking the sole lead in the event (Replay the game here). Caruana yesterday announced the warming up of “The 2022 Disrespect Championship” and today delivered a victory after a dramatic game. Joining the live studio of the US Championship, Caruana said: “Right now I feel exhausted. I was hoping to give you an interesting interview, I was hoping to keep the trend up, but I don’t have enough energy for that. It was a very difficult game, but it shouldn’t have been because I had such a dominant position at some point.“. Being asked if he chatted with Hans after the game, Fabiano answered: “I don’t think he [Hans Niemann] wants to chat with me anymore“. Hans Niemann had several chances to escape from a tough-holding endgame, but eventually fall under pressure. See the complete interview with Fabiano Caruana below
Fabiano Caruana on several occasions spoke about the ongoing Carlsen – Niemann controversy. Immediately after Carlsen withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup, Caruana commented that he believes “some people have a decent idea what Carlsen is alluding to“, clarifying a few days later that Magnus obviously left the tournament because he thought Niemann has cheated. Fabiano said then that he strongly feels Hans did not cheat at the Sinquefield Cup. Speaking about Kenneth Regan’s analysis on Hans Niemann’s games, Caruana said that he would take Regan’s analysis with a large grain of salt: “I know of a case of, a very high profile case, where with absolute certainty I can say that someone was cheating in an important event. And the person was investigated and was also exonerated based on Regan’s analysis. And I am certain that there was cheating“.
