Clichy just ahead

Etienne Bacrot

Four teams have perfect scores after six rounds, Clichy, Mulhouse, Evry and Marseille, with Metz also within striking distance. The bottom six teams are already in a fight to avoid relegation (three teams go down). Clichy-la-Garenne (in the Paris suburbs) are just ahead of the pack, due to their superior scoring record (26 games won with only two lost).

A remarkable split has occurred as the tournament divides into two groups.

Here were the standings at the start of the day after the fifth round (3 points for a won match, 2 for a draw, 1 for a loss and 0 for a default):

Position	Team	Location	Points	Game points difference	Games won	Games lost
1	Clichy	Paris suburbs	15	21	23	2
2	Mulhouse Philidor	Eastern France	15	18	24	6
3	Evry Grand Roque	South of Paris	15	18	21	3
4	Marseille Echecs	Southern France	15	15	20	5
5	Chalons en Champagne	North-East	13	15	21	6
6	Metz Fischer	Eastern France	13	15	19	4
7	Lutèce Echecs	Paris	7	-8	7	15
8	Vandoeuvre	Eastern France	7	-11	5	16
9	Noyon	North-East	5	-17	4	21
10	Strasbourg	Eastern France	5	-17	3	20
11	Rueil Malmaison	Paris suburbs	5	-23	5	28
12	Guingamp	North-West France	5	-26	2	28

Metz in sixth place had won four matches and lost one, whereas Lutèce in seventh had won one match and lost four.

An incredible situation with no 'middle-of-the-table' teams!

Here were the sixth round results, from earlier this evening:

Team (White on one)	Points		Points	Team (Black on one)
Chalons en Champagne	1	-	2	Vandoeuvre
Marseille Echecs	5	-	1	Strasbourg
Noyon	2	-	5	Evry Grand Roque
Guingamp	2	-	4	Metz Fischer
Rueil Malmaison	0	-	3	Clichy
Lutèce Echecs	0	-	2	Mulhouse Philidor

A tighter series of games, including a fine win by Vandoeuvre over Chalons-en-Champagne, were the main feature of the sixth day in Mulhouse.

Position	Team	Location	Points	Game points difference	Games won	Games lost
1	Clichy	Paris suburbs	18	24	26	2
2	Evry Grand Roque	South of Paris	18	21	26	5
3	Mulhouse Philidor	Eastern France	18	20	26	6
4	Marseille Echecs	Southern France	18	19	25	6
5	Metz Fischer	Eastern France	16	17	23	6
6	Chalons en Champagne	North-East	14	14	22	8
7	Vandoeuvre	Eastern France	10	-10	7	17
8	Lutèce Echecs	Paris	8	-10	7	17
9	Noyon	North-East	6	-20	6	26
10	Strasbourg	Eastern France	6	-21	4	25
11	Rueil Malmaison	Paris suburbs	6	-26	5	31
12	Guingamp	North-West France	6	-28	4	32

The leading teams will start playing each other in the seventh round tomorrow, when the championship will no doubt liven up! The battle for relegation should also come to a head, when the six teams at the bottom fight it out to avoid finishing in the last three.

My feeling is that Vandoeuvre and Lutèce are sufficiently strong to stay up, but it could easily go down to game points for deciding the three unwanted relegation spots between the bottom four.

More details about the French league can be obtained from the Federation web-site:

http://www.echecs.asso.fr/