One round to go, Top-12 already clinched

The Top-12, the nickname for the finals of the French Club Championship Finals, is one of the strongest league tournaments in the World. Only the German Bundesliga and the Russian Team Championship can boast of having a stronger league than France, and the tournament is reaching its climax.

The Top-12 is nicknamed such because it is the last portion of a large process. From October until April thousands of players compete in different leagues all over France, with teams varying in size and compositions. The winners of the different regional events qualify for the Top-12.

Round Nine

The match of the day was definitely between Bois-Colombes and Bischwiller. The two first wins of the match were from Le Roux and Giri for Bischwiller. Bauer beat Edouard to bring down the lead, but then Marcelin and Ragger scored to seal Bois-Colombe's fate. The final score was 4 - 1 for Bischwiller.

Giri coming in strong

Bacrot was held to a draw, but that was ok

Another important match was that between Clichy and Grasse, with the top rated team still trying to pressure Bischwiller at the top of the standings. They comfortably won 5-1.

Philidor Mulhouse beat Chalons-en-Champange 4-1. The following victory by Krasenkow was not decisive, but very nice:

A big victory for America's #2, Wesley So (white)

Round Ten

All eyes were on Bischwiller, to see if they could finish off the job. And they did so... though narrowly! Giri took care of Nataf, but Strasbourg fought back and Sebag beat Naidtisch (!). It was up for Edouard to come through again for his team. His victory against Vaisser sealed the deal and Bischwiller becomes the French top-12 Champion with a round to spare (thanks to tiebreaks).

A rough event for Naiditsch, who has lost four games so far

Andrei Sokolov, a living legend

In the battle for third place Bois-Colombes struck an important victory against Chalons-En-Champagne. It was a relatively even match, with Krasenkow beating Duda for Chalons, but at the end the rating difference on the bottom boards was too much and Bois-Colombes won. With this win the team of Bois-Colombes is at least third but if things go their way they might still catch Clichy and win silver.

The ever-studious David Navara

MVL and Wesley So

Standings After Round Ten

Note: Teams receive 3 points for winning, 2 for drawing and 1 for losing a match.

Replay Games

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Photos from the official website

Schedule

Links Official tournament site The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.