2012 French Championship marred by tragedy
The official tournament poster
It was exactly the last thing anyone wanted to hear. After a week of bewildering news involving Garry Kasparov, and then the no less astonishing news regarding Boris Spassky's disappearance from his hospital care in France, one hoped for a little sane news with a nice report on the French Championship just before the Istanbul tempest takes hold. Instead, it was a shocked Christian Bauer, tied for first in the penultimate round, who learned that his four-month old son had died. After consultation with the players, the final round was cancelled and a playoff was to be held to determine the champion of the final three, Bauer having left. However, in a show of solidarity, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Etienne Bacrot, and Romain Edouard refused, and the understanding federation declared the four as joint champions.
In the Women section, Almira Skripchenko dominated and won her fifth title with 7.0/10, a full 1.5 points ahead of the rest.
[Event "87th ch-FRA 2012"]
[Site "Pau FRA"]
[Date "2012.08.15"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Fressinet, Laurent"]
[Black "Tkachiev, Vladislav"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C15"]
[WhiteElo "2714"]
[BlackElo "2644"]
[PlyCount "67"]
[EventDate "2012.08.13"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. exd5 exd5 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. a3 Be7 7. Be3 Bf6 8.
Qh5 Bxd4 9. Bxd4 Nxd4 10. Qxd5 Qe7+ 11. Ne4 Ne6 12. O-O-O Nf6 13. Bb5+ Kf8 14.
Nxf6 Qxf6 15. Nf3 g6 16. h4 h6 17. Qe5 Kg7 18. Rhe1 Rf8 19. Re3 a5 20. Bc4 Re8
21. Qxf6+ Kxf6 22. Rde1 Re7 23. Ne5 a4 24. Ng4+ Kg7 25. Re5 c6 26. h5 b5 27.
Ba2 Raa7 28. hxg6 Kxg6 $2 {An oversight, but far from obvious. Black is in
trouble anyhow, but taking back on g6 certainly seemed like a no-brainer.} ({
The engines explain that} 28... h5 29. Rxh5 Nf8 {was the lesser evil, but the
line is not exactly screaming "Play me! Play me!"}) 29. f4 f6 30. Bxe6 $1 {
#The winning blow.} fxe5 31. Nxe5+ Kf6 32. Bxc8 h5 33. Rd1 Rg7 34. Bh3 {
Tkachiev had had enough...} 1-0
Final standings
Final women standings
Copyright
ChessBase
