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
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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