Nakamura Leads Reggio Emilia
Hikaru Nakamura is leading the 2011/12 Reggio Emilia tournament at the halfway point.
Vassily Ivanchuk took the only victory in round three, thanks to an endgame time-trouble blunder from Fabiano Caruana.
Caruana resigns to Ivanchuk in round three
All the games from round four were decisive! Ivanchuk defeated Morozevich in a complicated struggle which ended in checkmate, Caruana defended well against Vitiugov's attack to earn victory, and Nakamura beat Giri in an entertaining King's Indian battle.
Round five saw another three decisive games in this exciting tournament. Ivanchuk boldly sacrificed a rook against Nakamura, but he failed to follow it up accurately in time-trouble and had to conceded defeat. Giri scored his first win by beating Caruana with the Petroff, and Morozevich overcame Vitiugov in another hard-fought game.
The standings at the halfway point (3-1-0 scoring):
| Name | Nat | Elo | Pts |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2758 | 11 |
| Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2762 | 10 |
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2775 | 8 |
| Giri, Anish | NED | 2714 | 5 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2727 | 4 |
| Vitiugov, Nikita | RUS | 2729 | 2 |
There is a rest day on 1 January, so round six is on Monday 2 January. Games start at 15:00 local time (14:00 UTC), except the last round on 6 January which is 3 hours earlier. Live coverage is available at the official website here.
Photos from the official website.
