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Not all the registered top stars have played yet at the French Team Championship, which is nothing unusual in such team competitions. The best-known player who actually sat down at the board for a game was Veselin Topalov. The Bulgarian’s team, Chalons-En-Champagne, defeated C’Chartres Échecs in Round 2 — the former FIDE World Champion drew against Christian Bauer.
So far, the most dominating team has been Bischwiller. The team led by Markus Ragger, Etienne Bacrot and Arkadij Naiditsch defeated two clearly lower-rated teams by convincing scores of 6-0 and 5-0. The leaders will have a tougher task in round 3, when they will face Mulhouse Philidor, a squad led by Matthias Bluebaum and Grzegorz Gajewski.
In the first round, Bluebaum defeated Maxime Lagarde (C’Chartres Échecs). Lagarde tried a stormy attack, which Bluebaum refuted with a cool head:
Matthias Bluebaum had to settle for a draw against Thibault Fantinel (Elo 2380) in round 2
Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.1 and 2
These DVDs are about Understanding Middlegame Strategies. In the first DVD dynamic decisions involving pawns are discussed. The second DVD deals with decision making process concerning practical play.
Decisive matches give 3 points to the winning team and 1 point to the losing squad, while a draw grants 2 points to each team. Only decisive games are considered for the board point calculation (draws are not included).
| Pl. | Equipe | Pts | j. | d. | p. | c. |
| 1 | Bischwiller | 6 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| 2 | Clichy Echecs 92 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 3 |
| 3 | Grasse Echecs | 5 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 3 |
| 4 | Asnieres - le Grand Echiquier | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| 5 | Mulhouse Philidor | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| 6 | Vandoeuvre Echecs | 4 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| 7 | Chalons-En-Champagne | 4 | 2 | -1 | 4 | 5 |
| 8 | C'Chartres Echecs | 4 | 2 | -1 | 3 | 4 |
| 9 | Villejuif | 4 | 2 | -3 | 5 | 8 |
| 10 | Club 608 - Paris | 2 | 2 | -5 | 3 | 8 |
| 11 | Echiquier de l'Erdre | 2 | 2 | -7 | 2 | 9 |
| 12 | Agen | 2 | 2 | -10 | 0 | 10 |
