Reports | January 05, 2012 23:26

Who will win in Reggio Emilia?

Who will win in Reggio Emilia?

No less than four players still have a chance to become sole winner in Reggio Emilia with just one round to go. On Thursday Hikaru Nakamura lost again, this time to Anish Giri who thus caught him in first place. Alexander Morozevich joined them as well on 15 points after drawing with Vassily Ivanchuk. Only one point behind, on 4th place is Fabiano Caruana, who defeated Nikita Vitiugov.

Fabiano Caruana shows his round 9 win to the local spectators | Photo © Reggio Emilia

Event 54th Torneo di Capodannno |  PGN via TWIC
Dates December 27th-January 6th, 2011
Location Reggio Emilia, Italy
System 6-player double round robin
Players Ivanchuk, Nakamura, Morozevich, Vitiugov, Caruana, Giri
Rate of play 100 minutes for the first moves followed by 50 minutes to finish the game with 30 seconds increment from move 1

It's a situation that rarely happens: four players can still win the tournament outright. It's interesting to note that even without the football score this would have been the case - Fabiano Caruana could still finish first on 6/10 beating Anish Giri, with losses for Hikaru Nakamura and Alexander Morozevich. Of course this is all theoretical talk, but it does make the final round an exciting affair!

Hikaru Nakamura could have won the tournament already, but instead the American lost two games in a row. On Thursday he went down with White against Anish Giri. In this week's ChessVibes Openings our editors IM Merijn van Delft and IM Robert Ris already used Caruana-Giri, with the headline 'Attacking with the Petroff', so we'll have to wait and see what they come up with for issue #158! (We surely expect some inside info from Giri for one of the upcoming issues of ChessVibes Training, where he has a weekly column!)

PGN string

Anish Giri, shared first after winning four of his last five games

Although he's had a 2700+ rating for quite a while already, Nikitia Vitiugov is playing his first super tournament and it's a tough one. Against Fabiano Caruana things went fine for a long time, but just before the time control the Russian lost the thread.

PGN string

Vassily Ivanchuk finally managed to end his losing streak, drawing with Black against Alexander Morozevich. The Moscovite seemed to pity his opponent like anyone else, and didn't go for a very promising pawn sacrifice.

PGN string

In the final round, which starts two hours earlier on Friday, we have Giri-Caruana, Vitiugov-Morozevich and Ivanchuk-Nakamura. The tie-break rukes in Reggio Emilia are as follows:

  1. Match points (3 – 1 – 0)
  2. Sonneborn-Berger
  3. The result of the players in the same point group
  4. The greater number of victories


Reggio Emilia 2011 | Round 9 Standings

No. Name Rtg Score/game Tiebreak Perf
1 Morozevich,A 2762 15.0/9 SB 25.25 2820
2 Giri,A 2714 15.0/9 SB 21.50 2831
3 Nakamura,H 2758 15.0/9 SB 20.75 2816
4 Caruana,F 2727 14.0/9   2790
5 Ivanchuk,V 2775 9.0/9   2657
6 Vitiugov,N 2729 5.0/9   2528

Reggio Emilia 2011 | Round 9 Standings (classical)

 

Reggio Emilia 2011 | Schedule & results

Round 1 27.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 6 02.01.12 15:00 CET
Ivanchuk ½-½ Giri   Giri 1-0 Ivanchuk
Vitiugov 0-1 Nakamura   Nakamura 1-0 Vitiugov
Caruana 0-1 Morozevich   Morozevich 0-1 Caruana
Round 2 28.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 7 03.01.12 15:00 CET
Giri 0-1 Morozevich   Morozevich ½-½ Giri
Nakamura ½-½ Caruana   Caruana ½-½ Nakamura
Ivanchuk ½-½ Vitiugov   Vitiugov 1-0 Ivanchuk
Round 3 29.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 8 04.01.12 15:00 CET
Vitiugov ½-½ Giri   Giri 1-0 Vitiugov
Caruana 0-1 Ivanchuk   Ivanchuk 0-1 Caruana
Morozevich ½-½ Nakamura   Nakamura 0-1 Morozevich
Round 4 30.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 9 05.01.12 15:00 CET
Giri 0-1 Nakamura   Nakamura 0-1 Giri
Ivanchuk 1-0 Morozevich   Morozevich ½-½ Ivanchuk
Vitiugov 0-1 Caruana   Caruana 1-0 Vitiugov
Round 5 31.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 10 06.01.12 13:00 CET
Caruana 0-1 Giri   Giri - Caruana
Morozevich 1-0 Vitiugov   Vitiugov - Morozevich
Nakamura 1-0 Ivanchuk   Ivanchuk - Nakamura

 

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Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers

Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.

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Comments

FBardamu's picture

FBardamu

1 year 5 months ago

Giri for president!

aun1's picture

aun1

1 year 5 months ago

if giri, morozevich, and nakamura all have six points (or sixteen using the 3,1,0)

who takes first?

Louis van Meegeren's picture

Louis van Meegeren

1 year 5 months ago

Moro wins because his SB is higher, having beaten both Giri and Naka 4-1 (or 1,5 - 0,5)

Anthony's picture

Anthony

1 year 5 months ago

Well...........that is an..........shall we say unexpected? turn of events!
Back to planet earth for Naka and Giri confirming he's upper elite material.

Thank God Ivanchuk managed to draw.

Anthony Migchels's picture

Anthony Migchels

1 year 5 months ago

I assume Anish' TPR is not updated.

Peter Doggers's picture

Peter Doggers

1 year 5 months ago

Indeed, the 3-1-0 table is now correct. The order should be the same as in the classical one, because SB is the next tiebreak rule.

Jeff Hall's picture

Jeff Hall

1 year 5 months ago

The GIRIMINATOR!

noyb's picture

noyb

1 year 5 months ago

Too much chess for Naka. Wijk will be painful I'm afraid.

G.M.Visser's picture

G.M.Visser

1 year 5 months ago

Nakamura is a jewel for top level chess. He fights in alle his games. Unfortunately he lost his last 3 games in Reggio Emilia, this time no support from above!

Lee's picture

Lee

1 year 5 months ago

My original prediction was Nakamura and I'll stick to it, though I have a feeling Moro is coming home the stronger. As mentioned above, maybe Nakamura is fatiguing.

Abbas's picture

Abbas

1 year 5 months ago

Naka and Moro have more chances than Giri to win the tournament.

Rodzjer's picture

Rodzjer

1 year 5 months ago

In hindsight... ;)

redivivo's picture

redivivo

1 year 5 months ago

Nakamura can only win this if he beats Ivanchuk with black since his SB is worst of the top three players, and if the other two lose Naka will be passed by Caruana unless he wins himself. I don't think he will win with black against Ivanchuk, so my guess is Moro or Giri, advantage Moro with his superior SB and opponent in terrible form.

Parkov's picture

Parkov

1 year 5 months ago

2012, the year of Morozevich looks like it could begin splendidly

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 5 months ago

i don't see Nakamura beating Ivanchuk with today ... If Giri finishes first it will tuff to stop him in 2012, he's gonna fight like a lion to get closer to his dream and we will see a Carlsen number 2 ... I'll be happy if Moro wins in Italy, he really is a magician

S3's picture

S3

1 year 5 months ago

What dream? Giri is in school and not even sure if he wants to be a pro.

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 5 months ago

oh yes REALLY ?!?!?! ARF ARF ARF ...

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 5 months ago

* with Black today

The Devil's picture

The Devil

1 year 5 months ago

I hope Morozevich wins it!

martien smit's picture

martien smit

1 year 5 months ago

Giri wins!

Rini Luyks's picture

Rini Luyks

1 year 5 months ago

Great Giri! Congratulations! What a final!
Very clever to draw against Caruana not taking any risks.
Now Tata...

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 5 months ago

what a strange scenario ! The kid is gonna fly from now on ...

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 5 months ago

S3 : you know you can go to school and still have dreams, didnt know that ?

G.M.Visser's picture

G.M.Visser

1 year 5 months ago

Giri wins. This is a miracle: Lowest rating. But after two losses in 3 games he only played fantastic games. Last round: both his competitors Moro an Naka lose, this is unbelievable. Fantastic. Fantastic. Such a surrealistic tournament win, will never appear again.

G.M.Visser's picture

G.M.Visser

1 year 5 months ago

Giri wins. This is a miracle: Lowest rating. But after two losses in 3 games he only played fantastic games. Last round: both his competitors Moro an Naka lose, this is unbelievable. Fantastic. Fantastic. Such a surrealistic tournament win, will never appear again.

jimknopf's picture

jimknopf

1 year 5 months ago

Perhaps Nakamura should start studying Garry's middlegames from scratch again?
Maybe he understands he can learn something useful this time - and not just from Garry's openings. ;-)

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