Now Black doesn't have to worry about any nasty breaks and can finally bring his pieces into the game.
1. c2c4  1... g8f6  2. b1c3  2... e7e5  3. g1f3  3... b8c6  4. g2g3  4... c6d4 A solid line which served Black well in the past. 5. f1g2  5... d4f3  6. g2f3  6... f8b4  7. d1b3  7... a7a5  8. e1g1  8... b4c5  9. d2d3  9... e8g8  10. f3g2  10... d7d6  11. b3c2  11... h7h6 [#] 12. c3a4 A novelty, and a start of a capital anti-dark-squared bishop plan. 12... c5a7  13. c1d2  13... c7c6  14. c4c5 That is the point, Caruana wants to exclude the enemy dark-squared bishop from the game for as long as he can. 14... d6d5  15. e2e4 This is an essential part of Caruana's plan. Or else Black might be willing to play e5-e4 later himself, thus opening the diagonal for his Ba7 and building a kingside attack. 15... c8e6  16. h2h3  16... a7b8 Nakamura quickly brings his pieces to their optimal squares. 17. a4b6 White has managed to establish his knight on the outpost, from where it is putting annoying pressure on Black's center. 17... a8a6  18. b2b4  18... a5b4  19. d2b4  19... d8e7  20. f1b1 Caruana's play is straightforward and easy, he has a clear plan of improving on the queenside, and that means that his opening was a success. 20... f8d8  21. a2a4  21... d5d4 The pressure against the d5-point would have forced that move sooner or later. 22. a4a5  22... f6e8 Heading to the freshly liberated b5-outpost. 23. b1f1 [%c_effect f1;square;f1;type;GreatFind;persistent;true] And while his opponent is busy finding his optimal squares on the queenside, Caruana makes a point that he is now stronger on the kingside. Remember the excluded Bc7 $2 23... e8c7  24. f2f4  24... e5f4  25. g3f4  25... f7f6 Or else the white pawn will run all the way to the f6-square. 26. a1e1  26... c7b5  27. e4e5 A nice-looking, but in reality premature positional sacrifice, which Nakamura, of course, would not accept. 27... f6f5 [%c_effect f5;square;f5;type;GreatFind;persistent;true] 28. g1h1 