Ni Hua wins in Reggio Emilia

Almasi started with 4/4, but a round before the end first seed Ni Hua aready secured first place at this year's Torneo di Capodanno in Reggio Emilia. The Chinese GM scored 7.5/9 and a performance rating of 2834.

The 51st Torneo di Capodanno took place 27th December - 4th January in Reggio Emilia (Italy). It was a 10-player round-robin with GM Zoltan Almasi (2663, HUN) defending his title against Ni Hua (CHN, 2710), Alexey Dreev (RUS, 2670), Jan Gustafsson (GER, 2634), Konstantin Landa (RUS, 2613), GM Mihail Marin (ROM, 2556), Manuel Leon Hoyos (MEX, 2535), GM Miso Cebalo (ROM, 2493), IM Luca Shytaj (ITA, 2472) and IM Niccol?? Ronchetti (ITA, 2414).

Our first report covered the first three rounds, after which the Hungarian was leading with 3/3. He also won his 4th round game but then the fun was over. Dreev beat him in round 5 and after a draw against Leon Hoyos, the title holder lost to first seed Ni Hua, who took over the lead with 5.5/7. By beating Almasi in the crucial 8th round, the Chinese secured tournament victory already on Saturday; his 6.5 points out of 8 games was 1.5 more than Almasi and Marin's score. Shytaj and Ronchetti needed 5/9 to score a GM norm in this round-robin, but didn't succeed.

Games rounds 4-9

[TABLE=560]






Links:

• Tournament website
• TWIC's games in PGN