1. c2c4 The English Opening is very popular right now at top level. 1... e7e5  2. b1c3  2... f8b4 Hans played this same position yesterday, with the white pieces, against Caruana. 3. c3d5  3... b4e7 Caruana played the slightly less popular 3...a5. 4. d2d4  4... e5d4  5. d1d4  5... g8f6  6. d5e7  6... d8e7  7. c1g5  7... b8c6  8. d4c3  8... d7d6  9. g1f3  9... c8e6 All this is still theory. 10. g2g3 A new move. White played 10. e3 in a high profile recent game. 10... h7h6 A logical move, forcing White to take on f6 and simplifying the position. 11. g5f6  11... e7f6  12. c3f6  12... g7f6  13. f3d2 This move is wrong. Maybe Nepomniachtchi confused his opening prepartion, since Black can achieve comfortable equality now. 13... d6d5  14. f1g2  14... d5c4  15. g2c6  15... b7c6  16. e1c1  16... c4c3 This is not necessary, but it it's not easy to evaluate that Black is ok with such a bad structure. It was crucial to see that White cannot force the exchange of all the rooks on the d-file. 17. b2c3  17... e8e7  18. c1c2  18... h8b8  19. d1b1  19... b8b6 This is the point of the move 16...c3. Since White can't exchange rooks, Black is able to activate the rook and attack the a-pawn. This is enough for equal chances. 20. c3c4  20... b6a6  21. b1b2  21... a8g8 Attempting an interesting rook maneuver that is similar to the one employed in the famous rook ending of the game Capablanca x Alekhine, New York 1924 (in that game the maneuver was Rh8-h5). By the way, I have a short story to tell about this reference game. The endgame played by those giants of chess history is so complex, that once the famous coach Mark Dvoretsky gave it as an analytical task to a young Garry Kasparov, during one of the camps of the Botvinnik School. Dvoretsky told me that, upon studying the analysis written in the young player's notebook, he was sure that Kasparov would be World Champion one day. 22. h2h4 White avoids the Rg5-a5 maneuver. Incidentally, a similar approach should have been taken by Capablanca in the aforementioned game. I'm sure Nepomniachtchi knows everything about it. 22... a6a4  23. c2c3  23... g8g4 Niemann's rook is persistent $1 24. c3b3  24... a4a5 After this move White gets a large advantage. 25. b2c2  25... a5b5  26. b3c3  26... b5c5 The rook is not well placed here. 27. c3b2  27... c5e5  28. e2e3  28... e5f5  29. h1f1  29... g4g8  30. b2c3 Both 30.a4 and 30.Nb3 are also very good. 30... f5a5  31. f1b1 Now White can play 32.Rb3 in case Black checks on a3. 31... g8g4 This makes things worse because white's rook can attack from the rear with a possible Rb8. 32. b1b4  32... c6c5  33. b4b7  33... e7d7  34. b7b8  34... a5a3  35. c3b2  35... a3a6  36. b8h8 Now the h6-pawn falls and White is winning. 36... a6a4  37. a2a3 A refined move, but the pawn could be taken immediately. 37... f6f5  38. c2c3 White misses another chance of taking the pawn. 38... d7e7  39. h8b8 This gives up the idea of taking on h6 altogether and this deserves a question mark. I suspect Nepomniachtchi was uncomfortable leaving the rook on h6 more or less trapped after 39... a4a6 