A real chess festival: the 91st French Championship in Agen

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French Championship

The highlight of the chess year in France are the championships, a big event that attracts hundreds of players of all levels. It is rare that a federation manages to attract such a large variety of players for a various tournaments that take place parallel to the round-robins in which the strongest male and female players from France play for the title of National Champion.

No less than 889 players came to the city of Agen to take part in the 91st French Championships. What follows is a brief overview of the tournaments and activities of this chess festival.

National

The best French players establish the national champion in a round-robin tournament. Due to the absence of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (who played in the Sinquefield Cup) and Etienne Bacrot (who prepared the national team of Azerbaidjan for the Olympiad) suddenly a lot of players had more or less realistic hopes to become French Champion 2016. Obvious favorites were the six players who started with an Elo-rating of more than 2600 but they all failed to find their stride. In the end it was Matthieu Cornette who won the Championship with 6.0/9. But the biggest surprise of the tournament was perhaps the third place of Jean-Francois Jolly, who started with an Elo of 2361 as the lowest rated player in the field. In 2015 Jolly came second in the Accession Tournament and qualified for this year's National, in which he till the very end had chances to win the title.

To play in the National one has to finish among the first six of the National in the year before or finish first or second in the Accession Tournament of the year before or do have an Elo-average (in at least three rated tournaments) that is better than the Elo-average of other players who are not yet qualified.

Yannick Gozzoli (2nd), Matthieu Cornette (1st), Jean-Francois Jolly (3rd)

National (Women)

The result of the French Women's Championship was no surpirise as two of the highest rated players made it to the podium. Sophie Milliet (four times French champion) and Almira Skripchenko (six times French Champion) were joined by Natacha Benmesbah. They all finished with 6.5/9. After an intense blitz-playoff (3min+2s) Sophie Milliet won ahead of Almira Skripchenko and Natacha Benmesbah.

Natasha Benmesbah (2nd), Sophie Milliet (1st), Almira Skripchenko (3rd)

Accession

The players who finish first and second in the Accession tournament (open for players with an Elo of at least 2200 or for players who win their league) qualify for the National. After nine rounds GM Jean-Luc Chabanon, 8.0/9, and Maxime Lagarde, 7.0/9 were the first two who qualified for the National 2017. GM Jean-Marc Degraeve took third place and narrowly missed the qualification.

Maxime Lagarde (2nd), Jean-Luc Chabanon (1st), Jean-Marc Degraeve (3rd)

... 63 players. For complete standings click here

Véterans

The veteran tournament attracted 84 players who are 60 or older. Amateurs and strong players like Nicolas Giffard fought for the crown. In the end Jean-Pierre Boudre won (8.0/9), Nicolas Giffard finished on 2nd place (7.0/9) and Roland Weill finished 3rd (7.0/9). The crucial moment came in round five when Boudre won against Giffard. This game won the brilliancy prize of the round. 

Nicolas Giffard (2nd), Jean-Pierre Boudre (1st), Roland Weill (3rd)

... 84 players. For the complete standings click here

Open A-D

There were four other tournaments, divided by rating.

OPEN A : For players with an Elo-rating between 1950 and 2200

The winner was Arnaud HELSTROFFER (Elo 2064) who scored 7.5/9

... 121 players: For the complete standings click here

Open B : For players with an Elo-rating between 1750 and 2000

The winner was Simeon Pottier (Elo 1916) who scored 7.5/9

... 141 players. For the complete standings click here

Open C : For players with an Elo-rating between 1500 and 1800

The winner was Kevin Lebon (Elo 1792) who scored 7.5/9

... 209 players. For the complete standings click here

Open D :For players with an Elo-rating below 1500 and for unrated players

The winner was Antonin Bobard (Elo 1415) who scored 8.5/9

... 246 players. For the complete standings click here

Commentary

Every round was commentated live on Youtube by GM Manuel Apicella and Stéphane Laborde. Stéphane Laborde also invited the players after the game to record an analysis of their game. Here's the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLblBYAG9k8WF-ME-R_l6P1O5d-W9ucQRz

Christian Bauer and Sebastien Mazé shared a game with analyses (in French):

Simultaneous exhibitions and the Night of Chess

The French Championships would not be complete with the Night of Chess, a regular feature of the Championships. This year four players gratefully accepted the invitation and each of them played 24 games in the afternoon. Sophie Milliet, Tigran Gharamian, Laurent Fressinet and Adrien Demuth made amateur dreams come true. The atmosphere was great, the players signed autographs and posed for selfies.

Sophie Milliet, French women's champion 2016, playing a simultan in the center of Agen

Blitz

Every evening the chess club of Agen organised a blitz tournament after the round that attracted a lot of players. Here are some impressions:

Thibault Fantinel (right), 2429 ELO, was one of the many strong players who played in the blitz tournament.

Seminars

In the mornings a variety of seminars were offered. One of them was the "!ChessBase seminar" which attracted over 50 people. Pascal Simon gave an insight into the world of ChessBase and explained how to use the program to prepare for an opponent and how to use the ChessBase tools to analyse your games.