Top-12 in France: Alexander Ipatov reports

Top-12 in France: Alexander Ipatov reports

The Top-13, the finals of the French Team Championship, ended with a smooth victory of Bischwiller. GM Alexander Ipatov played for the team of Bois Colombes which won bronze. In an illustrated review the World Junior Champion shares impressions and points to some highlights of one of the world's strongest team events.

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.

Entrance to the playing hall

It is not easy to highlight something new from the French Team Championship – the so-called TOP-12. “Thanks a lot” for this to Alejandro Ramirez who has already come up with some good articles on the French League! But what can I say about this tournament as a participant?

Alexander Ipatov (Bois Colombes)

Christian Bauer (Bois Colombes): Verpasste den Sieg gegen Navara

Samy Shoker (Bois Colombes)

Well, the French League is definitely one of the strongest chess leagues in the world, maybe, just slightly behind the German Bundesliga, and it has been a big pleasure to play next to some to the world’s top players in a comfortable playing hall situated right on the shore next to yachts and other luxury facilities. But what makes the French League really unique is its unbelievably friendly atmosphere amongst clubs and players.

Here players could get all important information.

The two clear favorites this year were the teams of Clichy (So, MVL, Jakovenko, Van Wely, Matlakov, Tregubov, Hamdouchi, Lagarde, Delorme, Skripchenko headed by IM Jean-Baptiste Mullon as captain) and Bischwiller (Giri, Bacrot, Naiditsch, Ragger, Edouard, Schlosser, Le Roux, Marcelin, Maisuradze).

Bacrot (front) and Giri. Bacrot showed his class by winning against Jakovenko in the crucial match against Clichy.

Wesley So and Maxime-Vachier-Lagrave

Wesley So, Clichy's top board

For Wesley So things did not always go smoothly in France...

Loek van Wely (Clichy)

Bischwiller won the crucial match because Giri beat Fressinet and Bacrot won with the black pieces against Jakovenko. This is particularly remarkable since only a few days before the French League Dmitry shared first place at the Grand Prix tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk where he was pretty close to qualifying for the Candidates.

Third place went to the team of Bois Colombes (Bauer, Ipatov, Duda, Miton, Cornette, Maze, Shoker, Koziak, Guichard, Congiu headed by our great captain Boris Plane). I have played for Bois Colombes Since 2012 and I am very happy to be part of this team. In the French League 2015 we lost only to Bischwiller and Clichy and drew against the strong team of Mulhouse which had Wojtaszek, Navara, and Gajewski in its line-up.

The player with the tournament’s highest performance was Anish Giri (TPR 2828, 8/10), while Arkadij Naiditsch, who also played for Bischwiller “left” 32 ELO points in Le-Grau-du-Roi. We all hope to see him back and on fire in 2016 World Chess Olympiad in Baku, where he might be representing Azerbaijan.

Anish Giri

Naiditsch (with White) during his game against Sokolov

Since it was a team event, team success had top priority. In view of this some teams let some players – depending on style and form – play more often with White or Black than they would in an individual tournament. For example, IM Paul Velten (Chalons) played nine (!) games in a row with Black and managed to score his first GM norm!

My teammate from Bois Colombes, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, however, played eight games with white in a row and really took advantage of the first move by scoring 7.0/8!

Thanks a lot to organizers, clubs, players and everyone who was part of this great event. See you again in 2016!

Battle of the generations: the 17-year old Jan-Krzysztof Duda plays against 53-year old Josif Dorman

David Navara

A friendly exchange before the game that brought a drama in time-trouble.

The great monitor showing the top games in the playing hall.

A new trend: 11. Na3 in the Catalan

Final Standings

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

Replay Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Impressions

First place went to the team of Bischwiller

Clichy won silver

The spectacular view from the playing hall

Luxury everywhere

Grau du Roi

The sea is close

And as it was the beginning of June beaches were not at all crowded

The village

Holiday apartments

Some players lived here

The residence of the teams of Bois Colombes and Vandouvre

The pool offered an opportunity to cool down

Schedule

Photos: Alexander Ipatov, tournament site

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.