One of the world’s youngest Grandmasters and France’s biggest junior hope, 16-year-old Maxime is the youngest player of the tournament. France under 20 champion, he is well known in youth circles, having taken part in several world competitions as one of the top seeds. His best results were in 2002 and 2005, taking the Silver medal in the Boys under 14 and under 16 categories respectively. The Parisian’s rating has been consistently rising at the pace of 60-70 points a year since the start of the Millennium, currently peaking at 2579 – closing in on his goal of 2650 or so within a year.

Following in the footsteps of Lautier and Bacrot, Vachier-Lagrave already signaled his future intentions domestically, finishing in a tie for 2nd - 3rd place in the French championships in 2005. He is a member of the successful NAO chess club, and played in several team competitions around France in 2006. Much like other national prodigies before him, he is being coached for a few years now by a Grandmaster (GM Arnaud Hauchard). When asked about his chess heroes he mentioned former world champs Fischer and Kasparov – quite befitting with his appreciation to the aesthetic side of chess. Maxime said it is too early to know if he will be a chess professional, but it is an option he is not dismissing.