French Chess Championships Begin; Fressinet, Skripchenko Top Seeds in Open and Women's Sections

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

The Men in Black & White

The latest chess news from France is that the national chess championships 2012 have begun. The 87th French Chess Championships are taking place from August 13-25 at the Palais Beaumont in Pau, near the Pyrenees National Park. The Championships consist of eight sections: National Tournament, National Women’s Tournament, Accession tournament, Veterans tournament, Open A tournament, Open B tournament, Open C tournament and Open D tournament.

Nearly 800 players from all regions are taking part in the Championships. The main event is the National Tournament, an 11-rounds all-play-all competition featuring the strongest players of France (average elo 2617). Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is the defending champion.

National Men's Section
1. Laurent Fressinet 2714
2. Etienne Bacrot 2713
3. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2686
4. Christian Bauer 2682
5. Romain Edouard 2652
6. Andrei Istratescu 2647
7. Vladislav Tkachiev 2644
8. Hicham Hamdouchi 2627
9. Sébastien Maze 2573
10. Anatoly Vaisser 2556
11. Maxime Lagarde 2505
12. Jean-Baptiste Mullon 2404

National Women’s Tournament is a six-player double round robin. The average elo of the participants is 2324. Almira Skripchenko 2442, Sophie Milliet 2411, Anda Safranska 2298, Nino Maisuradze 2284, Silvia Collas 2261 and Andreea Bollengier 2253 compete.

Access the official website (French Chess Federation) for more details.

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