Aix-les-Bains: The second round

Aix-les-Bains (in eastern France near the Alps) was bathed in sunshine today for the second round of the European individual Championship. The most notable surprises on the top boards were Fabiano Caruana losing with White to Alexander Kovchan, and Sebastian Mazé downing Sergei Zhigalko.

Here are the top twenty boards.

Board	Seed	Title/Name	Country	Rating	Points	-	Seed	Title/Name	Country	Rating	Points
1	2	GM Nepomniachtchi Ian	RUS	2729	1	1-0	111	GM Popov Valerij	RUS	2565	1
2	6	GM Caruana Fabiano	ITA	2716	1	0-1	113	GM Kovchan Alexander	UKR	2563	1
3	10	GM Dreev Aleksey	RUS	2697	1	½-½	115	GM Zherebukh Yaroslav	UKR	2560	1
4	12	GM Sutovsky Emil	ISR	2692	1	½-½	117	GM Stefansson Hannes	ISL	2557	1
5	114	GM Hovhannisyan Robert	ARM	2560	1	½-½	15	GM Naiditsch Arkadij	GER	2684	1
6	16	GM McShane Luke J	ENG	2683	1	½-½	119	GM Sedlak Nikola	SRB	2556	1
7	116	GM Maze Sebastien	FRA	2559	1	1-0	17	GM Zhigalko Sergei	BLR	2680	1
8	118	GM Swiercz Dariusz	POL	2557	1	½-½	19	GM Rublevsky Sergei	RUS	2678	1
9	20	GM Motylev Alexander	RUS	2677	1	1-0	121	GM Shimanov Aleksandr	RUS	2550	1
10	120	GM Rogozenco Dorian	ROU	2553	1	½-½	21	GM Volokitin Andrei	UKR	2677	1
11	22	GM Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2676	1	½-½	123	GM Grandelius Nils	SWE	2547	1
12	24	GM Grachev Boris	RUS	2675	1	1-0	125	GM Manolache Marius	ROU	2546	1
13	122	GM Cornette Matthieu	FRA	2548	1	½-½	25	GM Inarkiev Ernesto	RUS	2674	1
14	26	GM Moiseenko Alexander	UKR	2673	1	1-0	129	IM Gozzoli Yannick	FRA	2543	1
15	124	GM Mastrovasilis Athanasios	GRE	2547	1	0-1	27	GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	ROU	2673	1
16	28	GM Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2672	1	1-0	131	GM Sanikidze Tornike	GEO	2542	1
17	126	GM Markos Jan	SVK	2546	1	½-½	29	GM Bologan Viktor	MDA	2671	1
18	30	GM Nielsen Peter Heine	DAN	2670	1	1-0	133	GM Gritsak Orest	UKR	2539	1
19	128	GM Antal Gergely	HUN	2545	1	½-½	31	GM Mamedov Rauf	AZE	2667	1
20	32	GM Georgiev Kiril	BUL	2666	1	½-½	135	GM Le Roux Jean-Pierre	FRA	2538	1

Today's selection of photos:

Arman Pashikian (chessanytime)

Ivan Sokolov (chessanytime)

Anatoly Vaisser, World Veteran's Champion (chessanytime)

Natalia Zhukova (chessanytime)

Here are some rules, one of the most controversial being 'Zero Tolerance' for later-comers. One just has to be at the board at the beginning of the round!

The championship is an 11-round Swiss and the rate of play: 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.

The Prizes:

The first 25 share 113,700 € and there will be 15 special prizes totaling 6 300 € for the best 'performance minus rating' achievements.

1	20 000 €
2	15 000 €
3	11 000 €
4	8 000 €
5	7 000 €
6	6 000 €
7	5 500 €
8	5 000 €
9	4 500 €
10	4 000 €

down to 25th (1000 Euros).

The top 'special' prize will be 1 000 €.

Rounds 1 to 7 start 3 pm (local time).

Tuesday the 29th is the rest day.

Then rounds 8 to 11, again at 3pm.

For more information go to:Official site