Top 12 French Team Championship got off to a fighting start in Chartres on Thursday

David Navara, Arkadij Naiditsch and Grzegorz Gajewski were among the well-known players to taste defeat as the Top 12 French Team Championship got off to a fighting start in Chartres on Thursday. The 11-round event is one of the world’s strongest national team tournaments and may get stronger if the likes of Maxime Vachier-Lagarave, Paco Vallejo and Teimour Radjabov show up to represent their teams in the latter stages.

Chartres, a city to the southwest of Paris, is best known for its huge Gothic cathedral, but from 18-28 May its Exhibition Centre is hosting 80 grandmasters from 30 countries for the Top 12 of the French Team Championship.

See also:

• Official website
• All the games with computer analysis at chess24