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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.
The top-12 finished today with some expected results. First Bischwiller, which had already clinched their championship, beat Montpellier 3-0 with victories by Bacrot, Ragger and Le Roux. Clichy had some problems against Mulhouse Phillidor. With draws on the top boards the match was really settled in the lower four. Lagarde and Van Wely (Clichy) lost to Degraeve and Riff, respectively, but Clichy came back with wins on the last three boards! Tregubov, Delorme and Skripchenko (who had a fantastic tournament) turned around the score and Clichy won 3-2.
Bois-Colombes had no problems at all against Poitiers, a very clean 6-0 win. Both Metz Fischer and Grasse were trying to escape the red zone. Both teams drew their matches. Grasse split the point with Evry which featured the following pretty game on the top board:
[Event "TCh-FRA Top 12 2015"] [Site "Montpellier FRA"] [Date "2015.06.09"] [Round "11.1"] [White "Fedorchuk, Sergey A"] [Black "Dorfman, Iossif"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "2657"] [BlackElo "2574"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "2rqr1k1/pp3ppp/4b1n1/3pP3/3P1R2/3B1NQ1/PP4PP/R5K1 w - - 0 24"] [PlyCount "33"] [EventDate "2015.05.30"] [WhiteTeam "EVRY GRAND ROQUE"] [BlackTeam "GRASSE ECHECS"] {Not an easy position. White has some pressure on the kingside, but things are not clear. For now his rook seems to be trapped.} 24. Ng5 $1 {Sacrificing the exchange to expose Black's king.} (24. Bxg6 fxg6 $1 {would give Black a perfectly fine position. His structure on the kingside defends itself quite well. The blockade on e6 holds nicely. With the control on the c-file Black might even have an edge.}) 24... Nxf4 25. Bxh7+ Kf8 26. Qxf4 Ke7 $1 {The king starts running to the queenside.} 27. Rf1 Qb6 $6 (27... Rf8 28. Bf5 $1 {is also dangerous.}) (27... Kd7 28. Nxf7 Qe7 $1 {is unclear. The fork doesn't work due to Rf8.}) 28. Nxe6 $1 {The start of a long, forced, and winning king chase!} fxe6 29. Qg5+ Kd7 30. Rf7+ Kc6 31. Qc1+ $1 {A key move.} Kb5 32. Bd3+ Ka5 33. Qd2+ $1 Qb4 34. Qxb4+ Kxb4 {The queens were traded, but that is not the end of the danger for Black's king.} 35. Rxb7+ Ka5 36. b4+ Ka4 37. Bb5+ Ka3 38. Bxe8 Rxe8 39. Rxa7+ Kxb4 40. Rxg7 {The dust has settled and Black is down three pawns. No choice but to resign.} 1-0
The top players per board were:
| Board | Name | Elo | FED | Pts | Rds | Perf | % |
| 1 | Anish Giri | 2776 F | NED | 8 | 10 | 2828 | 80,00 |
| 2 | DUDA Jan-Krzysztof | 2610 F | POL | 7.5 | 10 | 2782 | 75,00 |
| 3 | MISTA Aleksander | 2556 F | POL | 6.5 | 8 | 2803 | 81.25 |
| 4 | Markus Ragger | 2668 F | AUT | 7 | 8 | 2816 | 87.50 |
| 5 | Manuel APICELLA | 2510 F | FRA | 7.5 | 11 | 2605 | 68.18 |
| 6 | TREGUBOV Pavel V. | 2571 F | RUS | 7.5 | 9 | 2695 | 83.33 |
| 7 | Luc BERGEZ | 2327 F | FRA | 7.5 | 11 | 2446 | 68.18 |
| 8 | Almira Skripchenko | 2421 F | FRA | 9 | 10 | 2551 | 90,00 |
Of special notice is the player Paul Velten. He made a grandmaster norm! But that is not what makes it so special: he played nine games with Black! Perhaps cruel from his team, perhaps he wanted it as a lucky series once he was doing so well with the black pieces, but he did play all nine games of his grandmaster norm with black.
Matlakov-Wojtaszek ended in a draw (the match ended 3-2 for Clichy)
Some teams came in uniform for the last round
The dust was settled before the last round, but people still had games to fight
Wesley So drops a few rating points, but retains his 10th position in the World
Metz Fischer and Vandouvre finished with a 3-3 tie
| Pl. | Equipe | Pts |
| 1 | Bischwiller | 33 |
| 2 | Clichy | 31 |
| 3 | Bois-Colombes | 28 |
| 4 | Strasbourg | 25 |
| 5 | Evry Grand Roque | 24 |
| 6 | Mulhouse Philidor | 23 |
| 7 | Montpellier | 21 |
| 8 | Chalons-En-Champagne | 20 |
| 9 | Vandoeuvre | 17 |
| 10 | Grasse | 16 |
| 11 | Metz Fischer | 15 |
| 12 | Poitiers-Migne | 11 |
Note: Teams receive 3 points for winning, 2 for drawing and 1 for losing a match.
Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games
Photos from the official website
| Round One | ||||
| Vandoeuvre | 3 | - | 1 | Grasse |
| Bischwiller | 6 | - | 1 | Metz Fischer |
| Chalons-En-Champagne | 4 | - | 3 | Montpellier |
| Poitiers-Migne | 2 | - | 4 | Strasbourg |
| Clichy | 3 | - | 0 | Bois-Colombes |
| Evry Grand Roque | 4 | - | 2 | Mulhouse Philidor |
| Round Two | ||||
| Grasse | 0 | - | 4 | Mulhouse Philidor |
| Bois-Colombes | 5 | - | 0 | Evry Grand Roque |
| Strasbourg | 2 | - | 3 | Clichy |
| Montpellier | 3 | - | 2 | Poitiers-Migne |
| Metz Fischer | 1 | - | 2 | Chalons-En-Champagne |
| Vandoeuvre | 2 | - | 4 | Bischwiller |
| Round Three | ||||
| Bischwiller | 4 | - | 1 | Grasse |
| Chalons-En-Champagne | 2 | - | 2 | Vandoeuvre |
| Poitiers-Migne | 1 | - | 3 | Metz Fischer |
| Clichy | 5 | - | 0 | Montpellier |
| Evry Grand Roque | 1 | - | 2 | Strasbourg |
| Mulhouse Philidor | 3 | - | 3 | Bois-Colombes |
| Round Four | ||||
| Grasse | 0 | - | 4 | Bois-Colombes |
| Strasbourg | 1 | - | 1 | Mulhouse Philidor |
| Montpellier | 2 | - | 3 | Evry Grand Roque |
| Metz Fischer | 0 | - | 5 | Clichy |
| Vandoeuvre | 4 | - | 0 | Poitiers-Migne |
| Bischwiller | 3 | - | 2 | Chalons-En-Champagne |
| Round Five | ||||
| Chalons-En-Champagne | 2 | - | 0 | Grasse |
| Poitiers-Migne | 0 | - | 6 | Bischwiller |
| Clichy | 4 | - | 1 | Vandoeuvre |
| Evry Grand Roque | 2 | - | 1 | Metz Fischer |
| Mulhouse Philidor | 2 | - | 3 | Montpellier |
| Bois-Colombes | 3 | - | 1 | Strasbourg |
| Round Six | ||||
| Grasse | 0 | - | 1 | Strasbourg |
| Montpellier | 1 | - | 4 | Bois-Colombes |
| Metz Fischer | 2 | - | 3 | Mulhouse Philidor |
| Vandoeuvre | 2 | - | 3 | Evry Grand Roque |
| Bischwiller | 2 | - | 1 | Clichy |
| Chalons-En-Champagne | 5 | - | 1 | Poitiers-Migne |
| Round Seven | ||||
| Poitiers-Migne | 0 | - | 4 | Grasse |
| Clichy | 3 | - | 2 | Chalons-En-Champagne |
| Evry Grand Roque | 0 | - | 5 | Bischwiller |
| Mulhouse Philidor | 3 | - | 0 | Vandoeuvre |
| Bois-Colombes | 3 | - | 1 | Metz Fischer |
| Strasbourg | 2 | - | 1 | Montpellier |
| Round Eight | ||||
| Grasse | 2 | - | 3 | Montpellier |
| Metz Fischer | 1 | - | 1 | Strasbourg |
| Vandoeuvre | 0 | - | 4 | Bois-Colombes |
| Bischwiller | 2 | - | 1 | Mulhouse Philidor |
| Chalons-En-Champagne | 2 | - | 3 | Evry Grand Roque |
| Poitiers-Migne | 0 | - | 8 | Clichy |
| Round Nine | ||||
| Clichy | 5 | - | 1 | Grasse |
| Evry Grand Roque | 6 | - | 0 | Poitiers-Migne |
| Mulhouse Philidor | 4 | - | 1 | Chalons-En-Champagne |
| Bois-Colombes | 1 | - | 4 | Bischwiller |
| Strasbourg | 3 | - | 1 | Vandoeuvre |
| Montpellier | 3 | - | 2 | Metz Fischer |
| Round Ten | ||||
| Grasse | 3 | - | 2 | Metz Fischer |
| Vandoeuvre | 1 | - | 4 | Montpellier |
| Bischwiller | 2 | - | 1 | Strasbourg |
| Chalons-En-Champagne | 1 | - | 3 | Bois-Colombes |
| Poitiers-Migne | 1 | - | 6 | Mulhouse Philidor |
| Clichy | 4 | - | 1 | Evry Grand Roque |
| Round Eleven | ||||
| Evry Grand Roque | 1 | - | 1 | Grasse |
| Mulhouse Philidor | 2 | - | 3 | Clichy |
| Bois-Colombes | 6 | - | 0 | Poitiers-Migne |
| Strasbourg | 2 | - | 0 | Chalons-En-Champagne |
| Montpellier | 0 | - | 3 | Bischwiller |
| Metz Fischer | 3 | - | 3 | Vandoeuvre |
LinksThe 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. |
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