Moiseenko and Nisipeanu amongst the leaders

Twelve players have a perfect 3/3, but none of the nine 2700+s have. The highest-rated players on 100% being Alexander Moiseenko and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, the 26th and 27th seeds.

Here are the results from the top twenty boards.

Board	Seed	Title/Name	Country	Rating	Points	-	Seed	Title/Name	Country	Rating	Points
1	87	GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian	ROU	2598	2	1-0	2	GM Nepomniachtchi Ian	RUS	2729	2
2	89	GM Nikolic Predrag	BIH	2596	2	½ - ½	20	GM Motylev Alexander	RUS	2677	2
3	91	GM Melkumyan Hrant	ARM	2593	2	½ - ½	24	GM Grachev Boris	RUS	2675	2
4	93	GM Brkic Ante	CRO	2592	2	0-1	26	GM Moiseenko Alexander	UKR	2673	2
5	27	GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	ROU	2673	2	1-0	88	GM Tregubov Pavel V	RUS	2598	2
6	95	GM Palac Mladen	CRO	2586	2	½ - ½	28	GM Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2672	2
7	97	GM Guseinov Gadir	AZE	2584	2	1-0	30	GM Nielsen Peter Heine	DEN	2670	2
8	99	GM Mikhalevski Victor	ISR	2584	2	½ - ½	36	GM Khismatullin Denis	RUS	2662	2
9	43	GM Potkin Vladimir	RUS	2653	2	1-0	90	GM Pantsulaia Levan	GEO	2595	2
10	53	GM Bartel Mateusz	POL	2638	2	½ - ½	98	GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios	GRE	2584	2
11	55	GM Khairullin Ildar	RUS	2634	2	½ - ½	102	GM Halkias Stelios	GRE	2579	2
12	105	GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	ARM	2575	2	1-0	56	GM Hracek Zbynek	CZE	2631	2
13	59	GM Iordachescu Viorel	MDA	2626	2	1-0	104	GM Jones Gawain C B	ENG	2578	2
14	107	GM Zhigalko Andrey	BLR	2571	2	1-0	60	GM Lupulescu Constantin	ROU	2626	2
15	109	GM Kozul Zdenko	CRO	2568	2	½ - ½	62	GM Vuckovic Bojan	SRB	2626	2
16	65	GM L'ami Erwin	NED	2623	2	½ - ½	108	GM Papin Vasily	RUS	2569	2
17	113	GM Kovchan Alexander	UKR	2563	2	1-0	68	GM Beliavsky Alexander G	SLO	2619	2
18	69	GM Macieja Bartlomiej	POL	2619	2	½ - ½	116	GM Maze Sebastien	FRA	2559	2
19	71	GM Savchenko Boris	RUS	2616	2	1-0	136	GM Petrik Tomas	SVK	2536	2
20	143	GM Esen Baris	TUR	2528	2	½ - ½	72	GM Azarov Sergei	BLR	2615	2

Some photos from Aix-les-Bains.

Erwin l'Ami (chessanytime)

Pavel Tregubov, former European champion (chessanytime)

Daniel Fridman (chessanytime)

Salome Melia (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