Tkachiev wins Rapid Grand Prix in Nancy

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