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

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!)

[Event "54th Reggio Emilia"]
[Site "Reggio Emilia ITA"]
[Date "2012.01.05"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Black "Giri, Anish"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2758"]
[BlackElo "2714"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "82"]
[EventDate "2011.12.27"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Be7 7. Be3 Nd7
8. Qd2 O-O 9. O-O-O c6 10. h4 Re8 11. Bd3 d5 $146 (11... Nf6 12. Rde1 d5 13.
Bd4 c5 14. Bxf6 Bxf6 15. Qf4 Be6 16. Ng5 g6 17. Bb5 Rf8 18. Nxe6 fxe6 19. Rxe6
Bxc3 20. Qg4 Bg7 21. h5 {1/2-1/2 Nakamura,H (2729)-Kramnik,V (2790)/Moscow 2010
}) 12. Ng5 Nf8 13. h5 Bf6 14. Nf3 Bg4 15. Rde1 Bxf3 16. gxf3 Ne6 17. f4 h6 18.
a3 Qa5 19. Qd1 ({After someting like} 19. Rhg1 {Black can exchange queens with}
d4 (19... Rad8 $5) 20. cxd4 Qxd2+ 21. Kxd2 Nxd4 {and the ending is absolutely
fine for him.}) 19... Nc5 20. Bf5 Na4 $1 21. Qd3 {The only move.} Nc5 22. Qd1 {
Repeating moves...} Qb5 $5 {...but Giri doesn't go along.} 23. Qe2 Qa4 (23...
Qxe2 24. Rxe2 Ne4 25. Rhe1 Nd6 26. Bd3 b6 {also looks slightly better for
Black.}) 24. Qd1 Ne4 25. Bxe4 Rxe4 26. Rhg1 Rae8 {Black has a nice edge but
where exactly things went wrong for White is difficult to say.} 27. Rg3 Kh8 28.
Reg1 Qc4 29. Kb1 c5 30. Qd3 (30. Qf3 {followed by 31.Qg2 might have offered
better chances.}) 30... b6 31. Qxc4 $6 (31. Rd1 $5) 31... Rxc4 32. Rd1 d4 $1 {
This involves a strong exchange sacrifice.} (32... Rd8) 33. cxd4 (33. Bc1 $5
Re2 (33... dxc3 34. bxc3) 34. b3 Rxc3 35. Rxc3 dxc3 36. Be3) 33... cxd4 34. b3
(34. Bd2 Re2 35. Rg2 {looks horrible but might have been better.}) 34... dxe3
$1 35. bxc4 exf2 {It seems that there is no way to save White here.} 36. Rf3 ({
After} 36. Rh3 Re1 37. Rh1 Bh4 {Black is winning too.}) 36... Re1 37. Kc1 Bd4 (
{Or} 37... Bh4 $19) 38. c3 Be3+ 39. Kc2 f5 40. a4 a5 41. c5 Bxc5 ({White can't
do anything:} 41... Bxc5 42. Kd2 Be3+ 43. Kc2 g5 44. fxg5 hxg5 45. Rxf5 Kg7 46.
Rf3 Rxd1 47. Kxd1 g4) 0-1

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.

[Event "54th Reggio Emilia"]
[Site "Reggio Emilia ITA"]
[Date "2012.01.05"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Black "Vitiugov, Nikita"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B41"]
[WhiteElo "2727"]
[BlackElo "2729"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "85"]
[EventDate "2011.12.27"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Be2 Nf6 6. Nc3 Qc7 7. O-O Bb4 8.
Qd3 Nc6 9. Kh1 Nxd4 10. Qxd4 Bc5 11. Qd2 h6 12. f4 d6 13. Qe1 $146 (13. Qd3 Nd7
14. a3 b5 15. b4 Ba7 16. a4 bxa4 17. Bb2 Bb7 18. Rxa4 O-O 19. Qg3 e5 {Vukovic,
Z (2475)-Ionescu,C (2446)/Bucharest 2000}) 13... Bd7 14. Qg3 Bd4 15. Bf3 Qc4
16. Bd2 Bc6 17. Rae1 O-O-O 18. Be2 Qc5 19. Bd3 g5 20. Qf3 Rhg8 21. Na4 g4 22.
Qe2 Qh5 23. Bc3 Bxc3 24. Nxc3 Qc5 25. e5 Nd7 26. Ne4 Bxe4 27. Bxe4 d5 28. Bd3
Kb8 29. Rb1 Rc8 30. b4 Qd4 31. Qe1 Nb6 32. b5 axb5 33. Rxb5 Rc7 34. Qa5 Nd7 35.
Rfb1 Qa7 $2 {This doesn't work tactically.} (35... Nc5) (35... g3) 36. Qb4 $1
Nc5 37. Bh7 $1 {Not allowing the knight to e4.} Rgc8 ({The only move was} 37...
Rd8 38. Ra5 Na6 {because now there is no 39.Qd6. Then} 39. Qa3 Rc6 40. Bd3 Rb6
{is still good for White but Black can fight.}) 38. Ra5 Na6 39. Qd6 $1 Ka8 40.
Rb6 Rc6 41. Raxa6 $1 bxa6 42. Rxc6 Rb8 43. c3 1-0

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.

[Event "54th Reggio Emilia"]
[Site "Reggio Emilia ITA"]
[Date "2012.01.05"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Morozevich, Alexander"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D15"]
[WhiteElo "2762"]
[BlackElo "2775"]
[Annotator "ChessVibes"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2011.12.27"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. e3 b5 6. b3 Bg4 7. Bd2 Nbd7 8. h3
Bxf3 9. Qxf3 b4 10. Ne2 $146 ({o} 10. Na4 e5 11. cxd5 cxd5 12. dxe5 Nxe5 13.
Qf4 Bd6 14. Qd4 O-O 15. Rc1 Qe7 16. Be2 a5 17. O-O Bb8 18. Qc5 Qe6 {Ponomariov,
R (2758)-Ni Hua (2670)/Saratov 2011}) 10... e5 11. Ng3 g6 12. cxd5 cxd5 13.
dxe5 Nxe5 14. Qf4 Bd6 15. Qh6 Rg8 ({A remarkable idea is} 15... Nf3+ $5 16.
gxf3 Be5 {and the rook hangs while 17...Ng8! is threatened and the queen is
trapped!}) 16. Rc1 Ned7 17. Qh4 a5 18. Bb5 Kf8 19. O-O Kg7 20. Bxd7 ({A
remarkable choice.} 20. e4 $1 Nxe4 21. Qh6+ Kh8 22. Nxe4 dxe4 23. Be3 Ne5 24.
Bd4 {gives White good compensation.}) 20... Nxd7 21. Qd4+ Nf6 22. Rc6 Re8 23.
f4 Bb8 24. Kh1 1/2-1/2

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