International top players take part in French Team Championship

French Team Championships 2021

The city of Châlons-en-Champagne hosts the French Team Championship 2021, the "Top 12", which traditionally is played as a round robin. The venue is the Palais des Sports Pierre de Coubertin and organiser of the event is the Chess Club Échiquier Châlonnais, French Team Champion of 2010.

12 teams compete for the title: Bischwiller, Agen, Vandoeuvre, Grasse, Mulhouse, Clichy, Asnières, Villejuif, Paris 608, Chartres, Échiquier de l'Erdre and Châlons-en-Champagne. Reigning champion is the Alsatian club Bischwiler, which is supported by the German company GRENKE Leasing.

In addition to the best French players, numerous top international players will be taking part, including super-GMs Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Pentala Harikrishna, Alireza Firouzja, Bassem Amin and Jorden van Foreest.

The race for the title is completely open. The favourites to win the tournament include Asnières Le Grand Echiquier (with Vachier-Lagrave, Harikrishna and Alekseenko), Bischwiler (with Mamedyarov, Ragger and Bacrot), Chartres (Firouzja and Ivanchuk), Clichy (Amin, van Foreest) and hosts Chalons-en-Champagne (Giri, Topalov and Korobov).

The matches are played on eight boards and one board must be occupied by a woman. Four foreign players are allowed per match but at least four boards must be occupied by French players.

The tournament will be played as a round robin, daily from 24 June to 4 July without a rest day. The rounds will start daily at 14.15 CEST though the first round starts one hour later, 15.15, while the last round starts one hour earlier, 13.15.

Links

• The French Chess Federation
• The line-ups
• Tournament page