The 89th French Individual Chess Championship for men and women took place on 17-28th August 2014 in Nimes, a city located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Cévennes mountains in Southern France.
Twenty-four of the best French chess players (12 men and 12 women) participated in round-robin tournaments to decide the 2014 champions of France.
GM Laurent Fressinet won the Men’s Championship with 8,5/11 points, leaving the runner-up a full point behind.
Fressinet had a one point advantage ahead of GM Etienne Bacrot after the penultimate round and the direct last-round encounter between them should have decided the gold. Bacrot chose to play the so popular Berlin Defence with Black pieces, but didn’t manage to create any problems in front of the new champion. Thus, Fressinet converted his tournament advantage into a second-time gold medal (he lifted the trophy for first time in 2010).
GM Etienne Bacrot remained second with 7,5 points, while GM Romain Edouard took the bronze with 7 points.
The 2013 French champion for women WGM Nino Maisuradze took the title among women for second consecutive year. She won the 2014 edition of the tournament with the amazing 9/11 points. Maisuradze finished unbeaten with 7 victories and 4 draws, fulfilling her third IM norm.
WIM Andrea Bollengier emerged clear second on 8 points, while IM Almira Skripchenko took the bronze on 7,5 points.
Official website/ Replay Men’s games/ Replay Women’s games
Men’s Championship final standings:
1 GM Laurent FRESSINET 2708 8½
2 GM Etienne BACROT 2720 7½
3 GM Romain EDOUARD 2680 7
4 GM Tigran GHARAMIAN 2657 6½
5 GM Christian BAUER 2658 6
6 GM Matthieu CORNETTE 2533 6
7 GM Jean-Marc DEGRAEVE 2566 6
8 GM Iossif DORFMAN 2571 5½
9 GM Sebastien MAZE 2565 5½
10 GM Andrei SOKOLOV 2556 3
11 GM Jean-Luc CHABANON 2485 3
12 IM Kevin ROSER 2400 1½
Women’s Championship final standings:
1 WGM Nino MAISURADZE 2291 9
2 WIM Andreea BOLLENGIER 2236 8
3 IM Almira SKRIPCHENKO 2438 7½
4 WGM Anda SAFRANSKA 2258 7
5 IM Sophie MILLIET 2385 6½
6 WFM Mathilde CONGIU 2318 6
7 WGM Maria LECONTE 2206 5½
8 IM Silvia COLLAS 2316 5
9 Isabelle MALASSAGNE 4
10 WIM Laurie DELORME 2151 3½
11 WFM Andreea-Cristiana NAVROTESCU 2208 2½
12 WFM Cecile HAUSSERNOT 2101 1½
And they left her off the French Olympiad team?