Today's games featured the clash Mulhouse-Marseille which one imagined would have been a close tussle, and it was amongst the stars on the top boards. However by winning the bottom three boards Bacrot's Marseille team won 3-0 against the home team. A remarkable result that leaves them as Clichy's main challengers.
One noticeable aspect, as the games become more critical, is that several teams have strengthened their squads. The most important addition being Michael Adams (2726) who played for Evry yesterday in their 3-0 victory over Metz.
The situation after eight rounds is the following.
| Position after 8 rounds | Team | Location | Points | Game points difference | Games won | Games lost |
| 1 | Clichy | Paris suburbs | 24 | 27 | 31 | 4 |
| 2 | Marseille Echecs | South coast | 24 | 23 | 30 | 7 |
| 3 | Evry Grand Roque | South of Paris | 22 | 23 | 30 | 7 |
| 4 | Mulhouse Philidor | East (Alsace) | 22 | 18 | 28 | 10 |
| 5 | Metz Fischer | East (Lorraine) | 18 | 13 | 24 | 11 |
| 6 | Chalons en Champagne | North-East | 16 | 11 | 24 | 13 |
| 7 | Lutèce Echecs | Paris | 14 | -2 | 17 | 19 |
| 8 | Vandoeuvre | East (Lorraine) | 14 | -7 | 14 | 21 |
| 9 | Noyon | North-East | 11 | -18 | 12 | 30 |
| 10 | Strasbourg | East (Alsace) | 10 | -25 | 7 | 32 |
| 11 | Guingamp | North-West (Brittany) | 9 | -30 | 6 | 36 |
| 12 | Rueil Malmaison | Paris suburbs | 8 | -33 | 8 | 41 |
A draw between Noyon and Guingamp (both teams had been strengthed for today's clash) will no doubt affect the relegation battle (three teams go down), with Noyon favourite to escape from the last four.
More details about the French league can be obtained from the Federation web-site:
