Vachier-Lagrave wins 2nd Grand Prix FFE
Last weekend Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the second part of the 'Grand Prix FFE'. The French number three, who beat French number one Laurent Fressinet in the final, earned € 4,000 for two days of rapid chess.
Despite losing the first game in the final, Vachier-Lagrave emerged as the winner against Fressinet
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On April 28th and 29th one of the strongest rapid chess events of the year in France was held: the 'Grand Prix FFE' (where FFE stands for Fédération Française des Échecs). The tournament took place in Nancy, in north-east France and had a very strong field. Among the 19 grandmasters, the 8 best French GMs on the FIDE list were present, as well as Germany's number one Arkadij Naidisch and the legendary Ulf Andersson.
On Saturday, seven players qualified from a very strong open – a 9-round Swiss with 15 minutes and 3 seconds increment on the clock. In this tournament no less than 194 players of 14 nationalities participated and eventually GMs Vachier-Lagrave and Gharamian finished shared first with 7.5/9. Vlad Tkachiev, Laurent Fressinet, Andrei Istratescu, Etienne Bacrot and Sebastien Feller also qualified with 7/9 and joined the invited local player Christian Bauer (French number 4). Surprisingly, not a single foreign GM managed to qualify.
The twelve qualifiers for "Knockout Sunday"
In this tournament a total of 27 category prizes were handed out, for the best women, the best young and veteran players and for the best players in different rating categories.
Final standings 9-round Swiss
| Pl | Title | Name | Rapid | Fed | Pts | TOR | TB1 | TB2 | FFE |
| 1 | g | VACHIER-LAGRAVE Maxime | 2840 | FRA | 7.5 | 2827 | 47 | 40 | 2753 |
| 2 | g | GHARAMIAN Tigran | 2740 | FRA | 7.5 | 2789 | 46 | 40,5 | 2767 |
| 3 | g | TKACHIEV Vladislav | 2570 | FRA | 7.0 | 2773 | 48 | 39,5 | 2848 |
| 4 | g | FRESSINET Laurent | 2750 | FRA | 7.0 | 2769 | 46,5 | 40 | 2753 |
| 5 | g | ISTRATESCU Andrei | 2820 | FRA | 7.0 | 2762 | 46 | 37,5 | 2644 |
| 6 | g | BACROT Etienne | 2740 | FRA | 7.0 | 2747 | 47 | 38,5 | 2724 |
| 7 | g | FELLER Sebastien | 2590 | FRA | 7.0 | 2741 | 47,5 | 38,5 | 2789 |
| 8 | g | SANIKIDZE Tornike | 2490 | GEO | 7.0 | 2725 | 46,5 | 39 | 2816 |
| 9 | g | JANKOVIC Alojzije | 2540 | CRO | 7.0 | 2722 | 45 | 38 | 2786 |
| 10 | g | NIKOLIC Predrag | 2670 | BIH | 7.0 | 2702 | 47,5 | 38 | 2691 |
| 11 | g | ANDERSSON Ulf | 2540 | SWE | 7.0 | 2542 | 43,5 | 36 | 2507 |
| 12 | m | MILLIET Sophie | 2470 | FRA | 7.0 | 2538 | 41,5 | 35 | |
| 13 | g | AGREST Evgenij | 2540 | SWE | 7.0 | 2527 | 41,5 | 36 | 2466 |
| 14 | f | DONCHENKO Alexander | 2500 | GER | 7.0 | 2423 | 41 | 34,5 | |
| 15 | g | NAIDITSCH Arkadij | 2720 | GER | 6.5 | 2590 | 44,5 | 34,5 | |
| 16 | g | SHCHEKACHEV Andrei | 2620 | FRA | 6.5 | 2588 | 44 | 36 | 2545 |
| 17 | g | WIRIG Anthony | 2530 | FRA | 6.5 | 2518 | 43 | 36 | 2478 |
| 18 | f | IDER Borya | 2570 | FRA | 6.5 | 2509 | 43,5 | 34,5 | 2480 |
| 19 | f | WEBER Tom | 2290 | LUX | 6.5 | 2402 | 42 | 33 | 2520 |
| 20 | BUDISIN Stanislav | 2090 | SUI | 6.5 | 2275 | 38,5 | 30,5 | 2367 | |
| 21 | DAUBENFELD Gilles | 2150 | LUX | 6.5 | 2213 | 38 | 32 | 2318 | |
| 22 | g | FEDORCHUK Sergey A. | 2590 | UKR | 6.0 | 2572 | 46 | 37 | 2558 |
| 23 | g | FARGERE Francois | 2580 | FRA | 6.0 | 2485 | 40,5 | 33,5 | 2433 |
| 24 | m | MONROY Charles | 2500 | FRA | 6.0 | 2459 | 43,5 | 34,5 | 2409 |
| 25 | m | SKRIPCHENKO Almira | 2450 | FRA | 6.0 | 2410 | 43 | 32,5 | |
| 26 | gf | BEREND Elvira | 2320 | LUX | 6.0 | 2298 | 40,5 | 34 | 2271 |
| 27 | m | NEZAR Mustapha | 2290 | FRA | 6.0 | 2294 | 38,5 | 32 | 2291 |
| 28 | f | LE CORRE Benjamin | 2380 | FRA | 6.0 | 2292 | 41,5 | 31 | 2128 |
| 29 | MAYER Philippe | 2430 | FRA | 6.0 | 2258 | 37,5 | 30 | ||
| 30 | LUSTIG Mickael | 2040 | FRA | 6.0 | 2213 | 40,5 | 31 | 2391 |
On Sunday the system was a knockout with mini-matches of two games of 15 minutes plus 3 seconds increment, and another mini-match of two blitz games (3 minutes plus 2 seconds) in case of a tie.
Vachier-Lagrave won the event by defeating Tkachiev 1.5-0.5 in Quarter-final, Bacrot 2-0 in the Semi-final and Fressinet after losing game 1 in the Final, winning the second and then winning both blitz games.
The Quarter-finals in action
All games by Vachier-Lagrave
The tournament was the second leg of the Grand Prix FFE and in fact Vachier-Lagrave had also won the first leg, in January of this year. The 'Frenchman with two names' obviously has a big lead in the current Grand Prix FFE rankings (here in PDF). The next Grand Prix events will be in Aix-les-Bains (21-22 July), Villandry (6-7 October) and the Final will be held in Bastia (dates not known yet).
Thanks to organizer Christophe Philippe
