Just a quick note.
I'm testing this with IPB and the request uri (/forum/topic/1-welcome/) is redirect internally using try_files to /index.php:
2012/06/09 03:20:53 [debug] 2811#0: *1 http script var: "/forum/topic/1-welcome/"
2012/06/09 03:20:53 [debug] 2811#0: *1 trying to use file: "/forum/topic/1-welcome/" "/usr/share/nginx/www/forum/topic/1-welcome/"
2012/06/09 03:20:53 [debug] 2811#0: *1 http script var: "/forum/topic/1-welcome/"
2012/06/09 03:20:53 [debug] 2811#0: *1 trying to use dir: "/forum/topic/1-welcome/" "/usr/share/nginx/www/forum/topic/1-welcome/"
2012/06/09 03:20:53 [debug] 2811#0: *1 trying to use file: "/forum/index.php" "/usr/share/nginx/www/forum/index.php"
2012/06/09 03:20:53 [debug] 2811#0: *1 internal redirect: "/forum/index.php?"
In the logs, using debug I see a line like this referring ssi:
2012/06/09 03:20:53 [debug] 2811#0: *1 http ssi filter "/forum/index.php?"
Thanks