Giri Beats Nakamura At Reggio Emilia
Hikaru Nakamura's once secure lead has been shattered after he lost for the second round in a row to Anish Giri.
Nakamura's defeat leaves a 3-way tie for the lead going into the final round tomorrow, between Giri, Nakamura and Morozevich. Nakamura tweeted, "Running out of gas...hoping I can summon something up for the last round and Wijk. Four tournaments in a row is just too much after all!"
Morozevich had to be content with a draw today as Vassily Ivanchuk finally regained his composure after four straight losses. Fabiano Caruana defeated tail-ender Nikita Vitiugov to end the day just one point behind the leaders.
The standings after 9 of 10 rounds (3-1-0 scoring):
| Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2762 | 15 |
| Giri, Anish | NED | 2714 | 15 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2758 | 15 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2727 | 14 |
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2775 | 9 |
| Vitiugov, Nikita | RUS | 2729 | 5 |
Anish Giri defeated Nakamura to blow the contest wide open
Interviews with Giri, Ivanchuk and Morozevich from the Accademia Internazionale di Scacchi.
The games in the final round on 6 January will be Giri v Caruana, Vitiugov v Morozevich, and Ivanchuk v Nakamura. Games start at the earlier time of 13:00 (12:00 UTC), and live coverage is available from the official website here.
Photo by Martha Fierro for Accademia Internazionale di Scacchi.
