This year’s Paris tournament was hosted again at the École Normale Supérieure in the Latin quarter of Paris. 182 participants from 20 kyu to 8 dan competed in 6 rounds during the 3-day Easter weekend, April 19-21.

The top-group was headed by a particularly strong field, with two 8-dan players, Dai Junfu (France) and Oh Chimin (UK/Korea), as well as four 7-dans, Yang Yaoling (UK/China), Benjamin Dréan-Guenaïzia (France), Valerii Krushelnytskyi (Ukraine) and Thomas Debarre (France). Six 6-dan and six 5-dan players completed the group.

Quite unusually for the Paris tournament: all rounds began on time. The first two tables were broadcast on OGS and live commentaries were made on the EGF Twitch channel by Tanguy Le Calvé (1p) on Saturday and Andrii Kravets (2p) on the following two days.

The first day went without surprises for the top players with one exception, Thomas Debarre was beaten by Xing Yuhang (6d, UK/China).

Round 3 on the morning of the second day promised some exciting games. On table 1 Benjamin Dréan-Guenaïzia, European Champion in 2022, won against Oh Chimin. Following AI-analysis there were mistakes on both sides but the last was made by Chimin and Benjamin kept a small advantage just to the end, winning by 1.5 points.

On table 2 Valerii Krushelnytskyi, holding black, beat Yang Yaoling who won the tournament in 2024. AI says that Valerii had the advantage from move 43 on and kept it until the end, winning by 9.5 points.

The afternoon featured Valerii Krushelnytskyi against Dai Junfu on table 1. Both players faced each other on the final game in 2022 where Dai pulled off a win by half a point and thus winning the tournament. This time things went different. Valerii had a clear lead from move 78 onwards, which only increased with time. Dai resigned after move 174.

The second afternoon game was between Benjamin Dréan-Guenaïzia and Yuan Yixin a 5-dan living in Iceland. Looking at the AI-analysis the game was quite a one-sided affair after a mistake at move 60. Yixin won by 13.5 after 323 moves.



Sunday evening the traditional lightning tournament was held. 53 participants played in 8 pools round-robin. The first two from each pool then qualified for the quarter-finals.
In the final Chen Chongxiao won against Oh Chimin on time. The game for the third place was won by Yang Yaoling who defeated Lucas Neirynck.

After the first two days, only Valerii was undefeated. Pairings for the 5th round on Sunday morning turned out to be very challenging.

Table 1 paired Valerii with Benjamin. Holding black he had a slight but increasing advantage from move 38 on. Benjamin resigned after move 158.

On table 2 two 8-dan players played a very complicated game, Dai Junfu holding white against Oh Chimin. Though Dai had an advantage in the middle game the situation changed with move 170 (AI-analysis). All his struggling could not reverse the game and Dai resigned after move 241.

Now after 5 rounds Valerii still was undefeated and followed by three players with 4 wins, Chimin, Xing Yuhang and Yuan Yixin. The parings set Valerii (white) against Chimin and Yixin (white) against Yuhang.

In the game on table 2, Yixin conserved a tiny advantage most of the time during the game. There were no big mistakes made and Yixin won by 2.5 points.



All attention was focused on table 1. Though Chimin took the lead by about 10 points in the middle game, Valerii managed to come back in the early endgame. Several ko-fights prolonged the game and finally Chimin came out ahead by 1.5 points.

At the end of the tournament the final positions were as follows:

Oh Chimin (8d, UK, 5 wins)
Valerii Krushelnytskyi (7d, UA, 5 wins)
Yuan Yixin (5d, IS, 5 wins)
Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia (7d, FR, 4 wins)
Dai Junfu (8d, FR, 4 wins)
Xing Yuhang (6d, UK, 4 wins)
Yang Yaoling (7d, UK, 4 wins)
Chen Chongxiao (6d, FR, 3 wins)
Players with 5 or 6 wins were rewarded with cash prizes.

6 wins : Salmane Lbadessi (15k, FR) and Sergei Galkin (20k, FR)

5 wins : François Burq (2d, FR), Nicolas Large (2k, FR), Lilian Lecomte (3k, FR), Chloé Stawski (3k, FR), Benoît Monin (6k, FR), Johan Fong (8k, FR), Ahn Chang-Yon (8k, FR), Océane Malavasi (10k, FR), Adrien Lagroy de Croutte (12k, FR) et Alexis Zavadil (14k, FR).

Players with 4 wins (and some below) were rewarded with vouchers provided by our partners.

Full results on https://tournoi-de-paris.jeudego.org/

Photos:
Part 1: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCc7KD
Part 2: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCc7g7

The tournament was organized with the help of about 25 volunteers who did a great job again !
The tournament poster was created by Virgile Pestel.

Hope to see you all again next year for the 53rd edition, April 4 to 6 2026 most probably at the same venue.

Big thanks to Svitlana Kalmutska for the photos!


In the article - photos by Ralf and Svitlana