Chess News: Anish Giri Wins at Reggio Emilia competition

In an amazing finish to the 2011/12 Reggio Emilia competition, Anish Giri’s draw in the final round against Fabiano Caruana was sufficient to earn the title as both Hikaru Nakamura and Alexander Morozevich lost their last games.

Vassily Ivanchuk awoke from his frightening second half of the event to defeat long-time leader Nakamura. It was Nakamura third loss in a row, and all the sweeter for Ivanchuk after his loss to Naka in round five when he could and should have won.

Alexander Morozevich’s creative style, constantly seeking difficult and complicated positions finally backfired when failed to find the right path against Nikita Vitiugov and missed his chance to take success in the event.

So 17 year-old Anish Giri earns a memorable first major competition victory with 16 points, one point ahead of Nakamura, Morozevich and Caruana. It was a remarkably enjoyable tournament, with 70% of board games ending determinedly, and more wins with black than white. In just a week’s time Ivanchuk, Nakamura, Giri and Caruana will feature in the Tata Steel A Group tournament, where Nakamura will be defending the title he won last year.

The final scores in Reggio Emilia:

San Sebastian chess was won by Andrei Volokitin of the Ukraine. This year’s Festival obvious the anniversary of the historic super-tournaments held in San Sebastian in 1911 and 1912.The time control was 2 hours for all moves plus a 30 second increment. In the concluding stages of the contest Volokitin beat Ruslan Ponomariov in the quarter-finals, Leinier Dominguez in the semi-finals, and Viktor Laznika in the final.

In the final Laznika lost due to time pressure in his game with the black pieces and then blundered the exchange with white in the other game. Andrei Volokitin wins €20,000 and a motorbike for his efforts!

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