Hikaru's opening knowledge

How good is Hikaru's opening knowledge ?

Excellent if you ask me. @Hikaru really prepares the opening phase well with his second Kris Littlejohn and probably Chessbase+Stockfish15. powerful team !!@

Let's take the following  Giuoco Piano key position

This position can be reached after these moves

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. c3 h6 7. Re1 O-O 8. h3
Re8 9. Nbd2 a6 10. a4 Be6 11. Bxe6 Rxe6 12. b4 Ba7 13. Qc2 

This position has been played at high level for years but is still being debated and occurs quite frequently. Here the stats I have for this exact position after 13 Qc2

As you can see, top players can't have enough of the italian game, and Giuoco Piano variation.

In Yellow, you can see top GMs playing the position with both colors.

Recently in the Global Chess Championship , David Navara was facing Hikaru Nakamura and here's how the game went

In a nutshell, David Navara wasn't familiar enough with these type of positions. He played Nd2-c4 which isn't as strong. other GMS have played Nd2-f1 with either Ne3 or Ng3 later on.

in the game Hikaru managed the classic breakthrough d6-d5 as shown here

as you can see, the bishop on a7 is very active with dangers on the g1-a7 diagonal. Hikaru's knight on g6 can jump to f4. Black pieces are all active. 

While the game went on, it is clear than in rapid chess, being familiar with the key concepts of the position is key. 

In 2022 @Hikaru played the same opening ( including position after 13 Qc2)  against the most famous US chess player these days , Hans Niemann ( Who else ?) @HansOnTwitch

Here's the game which ended in a draw. It was played on chess.com Saturday Rapid Chess, long before the recent chess drama. Hikaru has more than 1 trick up his sleeve and played 14..b5!? instead of 14..Ne7 against Navara. I am sure his Giuoco Piano Chessbase file is very large !