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:
