Vachier-Lagrave Wins French Championship After A Remarkable Final Round
A really amazing finish! As it turned out (though it could easily have been otherwise), the game Bacrot - Vachier-Lagrave determined who would finish in clear first. If Bacrot won, the title would be his; if not, Vachier-Lagrave would be the champion. After a mind-boggling game that I wasn't just home prep by Black, the result was a perpetual check that left Vachier-Lagrave with the title. His 7/11 left him half a point ahead of four players, including Bacrot.
One of the four had 5.5 coming into the round and couldn't have been first in any case (fortunately), but the others could have. Fressinet started the round tied with Vachier-Lagrave, so if he had drawn with he'd have tied for first, while a win would have given him the title. Perhaps thinking he'd need to win, or perhaps from outright greed he played incredibly risky chess with Black against Bauer - and paid the price.
Istratescu also had a chance to tie for first, if he could have beaten Bricard, but that game was drawn. Finally, while Fressinet and Istratescu had to try to catch up with the black pieces, Edouard had the privilege of the first move against Le Roux, who was also one of the tailenders. In this case Edouard needed a win to catch up (he entered - and exited - the round with 6 points), but it was not to be - he was convincingly outplayed.
In sum, the leading standings:
1. Vachier-Lagrave 7
2-5. Fressinet, Bacrot, Istratescu, ______ 6.5
6. Edouard 6
Event website here.
Reader Comments (5)
Don't want to condone cheating but whatever happened to innocent till proven guilty? the court is yet to decide after all...
Haha. That feller is like Voldemort "he who shall not be spoken of". I like chessbase's suggestion that he and the other perpetrators reveal the texts that was on their mobile devices at the time of the offence and clear their names/ or not once and for all.
only problem Jaideepblue is he was declared guilty by the courts.
The nameless chap has only himself to blame if other players, like Dennis, have a somewhat chilly attitude towards him. e.g. I am cheering on Iordechescu in the first round (section 8) of the World Cup!
wheels within wheels: http://www.whychess.org/en/node/1544
let us not have a rush to judgement....
[DM: Thanks for the link. I saw that interview earlier this afternoon, in Chess Today, but not in any publicly accessible source. In any case, I don't really see how it helps prove the players' innocence, as it doesn't address any of the relevant evidence: the text messages, second-hand reports, engine confirmation and Hauchard's perambulations around the board. The FFE may *also* have problems, but unless there's some way in which they could have manufactured the evidence I don't see how it changes things. (What could they have done, program Firebird after the fact to have an exceptionally high concord with F's moves and hypnotize Hauchard to walk to just the right boards in such a way that it harmonizes with a simple code?) So at "best" (really, it would be the worst outcome) it's a pox on all their houses.]