Morozevich Crushes Nakamura At Reggio Emilia
Alexander Morozevich crushed Hikaru Nakamura with the black pieces in round eight of the 2011/12 Reggio Emilia tournament to keep his hopes of winning the tournament alive.
The remarkably low draw rate in the tournament continued as all the games in round eight were decisive! Anish Giri was relentless in his pursuit of victory over Nikita Vitiugov, and poor Vassily Ivanchuk suffered his fourth consecutive loss to Fabiano Caruana.
Vassily Ivanchuk seems to be in a really bad way, giving away his pieces before resigning. It's terrible to see a great player in such obvious distress.
The standings after eight of 10 rounds (3-1-0 scoring)
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2758 | 15 |
| Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2762 | 14 |
| Giri, Anish | NED | 2714 | 12 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2727 | 11 |
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2775 | 8 |
| Vitiugov, Nikita | RUS | 2729 | 5 |
The games in round nine on 5 January will be Nakamura v Giri, Morozevich v Ivanchuk, and Caruana v Vitiugov. Games start at 15:00 local time (14:00 UTC), and live coverage is available from the official website here.
Photos by Martha Fierro for Accademia Internazionale di Scacchi.
