Vladimir Potkin alone on 5/5

Three players are on 4.5/5 half-a-point behind Vladimir Potkin. These are former European champion Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Mircea-Emilian Parligras (both of Roumania) and the young French IM Anthony Wirig who has surprised many observers with his excellent play so-far.

Do you recognize the mystery man in the main photo? (answer below)

Here are the results from the top twenty boards.

Board	Seed	Title/Name	Country	Rating	Points	-	Seed	Title/Name	Country	Rating	Points
1	43	GM Potkin Vladimir	RUS	2653	4	1-0	71	GM Savchenko Boris	RUS	2616	4
2	73	GM Ragger Markus	AUT	2614	3½	½ - ½	12	GM Sutovsky Emil	ISR	2692	3½
3	84	GM Reinderman Dimitri	NED	2601	3½	½ - ½	14	GM Polgar Judit	HUN	2686	3½
4	21	GM Volokitin Andrei	UKR	2677	3½	½ - ½	97	GM Guseinov Gadir	AZE	2584	3½
5	87	GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian	ROU	2598	3½	1-0	24	GM Grachev Boris	RUS	2675	3½
6	98	GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios	GRE	2584	3½	½ - ½	26	GM Moiseenko Alexander	UKR	2673	3½
7	27	GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	ROU	2673	3½	1-0	100	GM Kotronias Vasilios	GRE	2583	3½
8	28	GM Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2672	3½	½ - ½	107	GM Zhigalko Andrey	BLR	2571	3½
9	170	IM Wirig Anthony	FRA	2480	3½	1-0	46	GM Korobov Anton	UKR	2647	3½
10	59	GM Iordachescu Viorel	MDA	2626	3½	½ - ½	151	GM Vaisser Anatoly	FRA	2522	3½
11	175	IM Bellaiche Anthony	FRA	2472	3½	½ - ½	3	GM Navara David	CZE	2722	3
12	1	GM Svidler Peter	RUS	2730	3	½ - ½	70	GM Ivanisevic Ivan	SRB	2617	3
13	72	GM Azarov Sergei	BLR	2615	3	½ - ½	4	GM Vitiugov Nikita	RUS	2720	3
14	7	GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw	POL	2711	3	1-0	75	GM Stevic Hrvoje	CRO	2611	3
15	9	GM Vallejo Pons Francisco	SPA	2707	3	1-0	80	GM Papaioannou Ioannis	GRE	2605	3
16	15	GM Naiditsch Arkadij	GER	2684	3	½ - ½	90	GM Pantsulaia Levan	GEO	2595	3
17	17	GM Zhigalko Sergei	BLR	2680	3	1-0	82	GM Balogh Csaba	HUN	2601	3
18	79	GM Hammer Jon Ludvig	NOR	2606	3	1-0	18	GM Riazantsev Alexander	RUS	2679	3
19	102	GM Halkias Stelios	GRE	2579	3	½ - ½	20	GM Motylev Alexander	RUS	2677	3
20	89	GM Nikolic Predrag	BIH	2596	3	½ - ½	22	GM Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2676	3

The man in the main photo is Miso Cebalo, former World Veteran Champion and commentator here in Aix-les-Bains.

Today's photo gallery:

Kiril Georgiev (chessanytime)

Sébastien Mazé (chessanytime)

Vladimir Akopian (chessanytime)

Jovanka Houska (chessanytime)

The notable Russian players in the final photo below are (from left to right) Sergei Volkov (bronze medallist 2002 & 2008), Vladimir Potkin (current leader) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (2010 champion).

Getting ready for battle (chessanytime)

The previous champions:

Year	Player	Country
2000	Pavel Tregubov	RUS (FRA)
2001	Emil Sutovsky	ISR
2002	Bartolomej Macieja	POL
2003	Zurab Azmaiparashvili	GEO
2004	Vassily Ivanchuk	UKR
2005	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	ROM
2006	Zdenko Kozul	HRV
2007	Vladislav Tkachiev	KAZ (FRA)
2008	Sergei Tiviakov	RUS (NED)
2009	Evgeny Tomashevsky	RUS
2010	Ian Nepomniachtchi	RUS

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