The Nakamura Express pulls away at Reggio Emilia

GMHikaru tweets "The freight train appears to be back on track!"  Hopefully the train will have enough fuel to make it through Wijk aan Zee.  Nakamura's defense of his Tata Steel title begins on January 13th.

 Photo © |http://www.ippogrifoscacchi.it

In today's game, look at all the compensation Nakamura gets for the investment of a mere wing pawn.

One has to feel for Nikita Vitiugov, who's only 24 years old.  It's hard for a Russian grandmaster to get foreign invitations when the GM is not one of the elite dozen players in the world.  It's doubly hard to play in one's inaugural "2700+ only" event.  Even the teenagers Giri and Caruana are grizzled veterans,  relatively speaking.

For more coverage of today's action, check out The Week in Chess.