Vachier-Lagrave youngest French champ ever

Today France got a new national champion and he’s only sixteen (and ten months) years old. His name: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. He finished shared first with the current European champion, Vladislav Tkachiev, but in today’s tiebreak final naturally the internet generation representative proved to be the strongest blitz player (after the two rapid games had both ended in a draw).

Two years ago, Vachier-Lagrave disclosed himself as the big French talent by becoming a GM at the age of 14. It’s clear that this chess summer he’s experiencing a major breakthrough; during ChessVibes on tour we saw him win the Paris Championship, which proved to be a good omen for the real title. Now at the 82nd French Championship he (2595) left strong compatriots like Tkachiev (2655), Fressinet (2646) and Bauer (2626) behind him and there’s only one word for that: magnifique.

The final standings in the 11-round French Ch were:

 1. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime  GM  2595  7,5
 2. Vladislav Tkachiev       GM  2655  7,5
 3. Andrei Sokolov           GM  2582  7,0
 4. Christian Bauer          GM  2626  6,5
 5. Iossif Dorfman           GM  2584  6,5
 6. Robert Fontaine          GM  2567  5,5
 7. Laurent Fressinet        GM  2646  5,5
 8. Jean-Marc Degraeve       GM  2520  5,0
 9. Anatoly Vaisser          GM  2544  5,0
10. Igor-Alexandre Nataf     GM  2588  4,0
11. Olivier Renet            GM  2498  3,5
12. Laurent Guidarelli       IM  2450  2,5

Here you can replay all of Vachier-Lagrave’s games, including today’s tiebreak: