French Championship

Aix-les-Thermes: This out of the way site in the Pyrenees hosted a range of events beside the title tournament, an invitational of the nation's top 12 rated players, and attracted a total of  80 competitors.

Our information on the event was provided by the (proud) winner, who claims that the biggest sensation was him emerging in first place. To back this up, the new champion Nicolas Guibert provides statistical evidence. 

Arnaud Cordier, the defending champion who tied for the top spot, is rated #36 in the world, and narrowly missed a berth in the final eight of the Challenge Mondial. Guibert is ranked about #300. Also newsworthy is the fact that the tournament victor was making his debut in the championship group! Nicolas says that they do share a vocation - both are engineers working in computer science.

The event was extremely close fought, and the difference between Aix-les-Thermes and previous championships was the lower score of favourite Cordier. He could not match his total of the previous years of 17/22. Guibert won the title since he had more wins, and says that Cordier was not aggressive enough this year, and suffered from a more fearless attitude from his lower rated rivals. 

The top results: 

1) Nicolas Guibert 14 pts (4 victories)
2) IM  Arnaud Cordier 14 pts (3 victories)
3) IM Papa Cissé 13 pts
4) André Berçot 13 pts
5-6) IM Georges Mostovoy and Laurent Nicault 12 pts