GM Vladislav Tkachiev grabbed the winner’s trophy at the first stage of the French Rapid Grand-Prix 2013 in Nancy. The strong rapid tournament took place on 9-10th March at the Conseil Général de Meurthe et Moselle in Nancy.
Tkachiev won the final match against Russian GM Vladimir Dobrov with a 1,5-0,5 score.
The qualifiying open on saturday was won by Bacrot, Postny and Gharamian with 7,5/9. The organizers welcomed 210 players. Luxembourger WGM Elvira Berend was the best woman; French IM Mehrshad Sharif, the best veteran; and German Alexander Donchenko, the best junior.
At the round-of-16 there were some surprising eliminations. Etienne Bacrot, German’s Nr.1 Arkadij Naiditsch and Tigran Gharamian lost their matches against lower rated opponents.
The quarterfinals finished with victories by Vachier-Lagrave, Tkachiev, Svetushkin and Dobrov. In the semifinals, French Nr. 1 surprisingly lost against the Russian GM, while Tkachiev beat Svetushkin.
The final match had a very nice decisive game, where the eventual winner got his victory in a nice attacking game.
Final standings – Qualifying tournament:
| 1 | g | BACROT Etienne | 2790 | 7,5 |
| 2 | g | POSTNY Evgeny | 2602 | 7,5 |
| 3 | g | GHARAMIAN Tigran | 2600 | 7,5 |
| 4 | g | VACHIER-LAGRAVE Maxime | 2741 | 7,0 |
| 5 | g | ISTRATESCU Andrei | 2660 | 7,0 |
| 6 | g | SVETUSHKIN Dmitry | 2599 | 7,0 |
| 7 | g | HAMDOUCHI Hicham | 2620 | 7,0 |
| 8 | g | PELLETIER Yannick | 2592 | 7,0 |
| 9 | g | NAIDITSCH Arkadij | 2735 | 7,0 |
| 10 | g | TKACHIEV Vladislav | 2643 | 7,0 |
| 11 | m | DOURERASSOU Jonathan | 2450 | 7,0 |
| 12 | g | EDOUARD Romain | 2660 | 7,0 |
| 13 | m | MONROY Charles | 2500 | 7,0 |
| 14 | g | SANIKIDZE Tornike | 2490 | 7,0 |
| 15 | g | WIRIG Anthony | 2530 | 6,5 |
| 16 | g | DOBROV Vladimir | 2475 | 6,5 |
| 17 | m | AGUETTAZ Maxime | 2420 | 6,5 |
| 18 | m | SHARIF Mehrshad | 2439 | 6,5 |
| 19 | m | NEZAR Mustapha | 2290 | 6,5 |
| 20 | m | BEREND Fred | 2330 | 6,5 |
| 21 | g | GULIYEV Namig | 2730 | 6,0 |
| 22 | g | BAUER Christian | 2645 | 6,0 |
| 23 | m | SHOKER Samy | 2504 | 6,0 |
| 24 | g | FRESSINET Laurent | 2724 | 6,0 |
| 25 | g | DAVID Alberto | 2630 | 6,0 |
| 26 | g | FIER Alexandr | 2638 | 6,0 |
| 27 | m | DONCHENKO Alexander | 2370 | 6,0 |
| 28 | COUPET Pascal | 2420 | 6,0 | |
| 29 | g | DJURIC Stefan | 2407 | 6,0 |
| 30 | m | DONCHENKO Anatoly | 2360 | 6,0 |
Amazing.