Mr. Robert CRÉPEAUX French Chess Champion

The French Chess Championship, which took place last week in Strasbourg, ended on Sunday with the victory of Mr. Robert Crépeaux, member of the Cercle des Joueurs d'Echecs de Nice and the Cercle des Amateurs d'Echecs de Grasse.

The young and likeable champion is barely 23 years old. That is to say in what magnificent form he is starting a career where all ambitions are now permitted to him.
In fact, does he not have a right to this title, for which he did not hesitate to put himself in line and which for seven days he fiercely contested and took in a hard fight against formidable opponents? His victory over Muffang, Renaud, Suren gives the result extraordinary proportions that make it appear to us quite simply as a revelation. And it is because he was hardly talked about, that the general attention was fixed on the "usual big favorites", that his decisive and sudden victory is more significant and surprising.

Mr. Robert Crépeaux was born on October 24, 1900, in Grasse, where his venerated father, Mr. Léopold Crépeaux, practiced, with a dignity and a conscience that remained proverbial, the profession of notary.
He entered the Stanislas Institute in Cannes early, and left in 1917 with brilliant diplomas, to finish at the Lycée de Marseille then at the Lycée de Nice, his courses in special mathematics. From then on, he would go from success to success. In 1919, he was accepted with number 75 out of 150, in the Polytechnique competition; he did brilliant studies there and graduated with the rank of second lieutenant of artillery in 1921. The following year he was promoted to lieutenant, but his period of military service was about to expire, so he preferred to abandon the military profession. And here he is now an engineer attached to the operations of the P.-L.-M. Company in Corbeil.

His beginnings in the game of chess date back to 1911. The first notions were given to him by his friends Georges Renaud and Muffang; the latter, a student with him at the Ecole Polytechnique. Quickly in possession of the subtleties and the smallest details of the game, he was successively affiliated with the "Cercle des Echecs" of Nice, Marseille, Orléans and in Paris, at "La Régence", at the "Palais Royal", at "Philidor", at the Fou du Roi" and at the Group of "Amateur Chessmen" of Grasse.

His first weapons date back to Pentecost 1924, the date on which he participated in the International Tournament of France against Hollande, etc.; of our camp he was the only one to triumph over his adversary. His recent exploit will earn him the honor of holding until the next national competition the "Challenge of Progress", the perpetual cup offered by the President of the Republic, while it consecrates the now uncontested science of the young champion to whom we present our warm congratulations.

Here are the results of the tournament:
1. ex-æquo Crépeaux, H. Bertrand and Gibaud, 8 points; 4. ex-æquo: Chéron and Muffang, 8 p.; 6. Renaud, 7 p.; 7. Suren, 7 p.; 8. Michel, 5 p.; 9. Lazard, 5 p.; 10. Duchamp and Marolles; 12. Bertrand, 2 p.; 13. Casier, 1 p.
The comparison of the results of the first three, in accordance with the regulations, giving Crépeaux, 45; H. Bertrand, 44, and Gibaud, 43, Robert Crépeaux is proclaimed champion of France.

L. DE LORENZO.