In a direct encounter between the tournament leaders, Hikaru Nakamura beat Vassily Ivanchuk on Saturday in Reggio Emilia to reach 11 points out of 5 games. Alexander Morozevich is in second place after beating his compatriot Nikita Vitiugov while Anish Giri won his first game, against Fabiano Caruana.

Nakamura beats Ivanchuk, with some luck | Photo © Reggio Emilia

Sometimes you just need a bit of luck. Hikaru Nakamura is the sole leader after five rounds in Reggio Emilia after his opponent and co-leader Vassily Ivanchuk outplayed him but then missed the winning move (and then also the drawing move).

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The American tweeted about the game:

Terribly played game by both of us, but great for the fans. This video pretty much sums up how I feel as 2011 ends!

It's really nice to have players tweeting during tournaments as it's such an easy way to get closer to the fans. Anish Giri sent something out too, after his game against Fabiano Caruana:

A victory with Petroff to conclude the year- what can be better! Happy New Year! :)

To lose a game one needs to make at least one mistake, and the more so with White against the Petroff. Somehow things went wrong for Caruana very quickly - like against Ivanchuk, his opening was very unsuccessful.

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Alexander Morozevich is in sole second place after beating his compatriot Nikita Vitiugov. He always kept pressure on his opponent's position and a temporary pawn sac by Vitiugov didn't help either.

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New Year's Day is a rest day for the participants, who will continue their tournament at 15:00 CET on January 2nd.