World champion under 10 in 2022, and first French world chess champion since 1991, David Lacan-Rus has just added a new line to his young but already “very good track record”. The C'Chartres Chess player won the bronze medal at the U12 World Championships in Montesilvano (Italy) this Tuesday, November 26. “I was a little impressed at the beginning because compared to the last World Championship, there were more people and more countries” confides the young nugget.
However, the teenager had a perfect start to the competition with five consecutive victories, despite the stakes of the tournament. An ideal start which perhaps burned his wings a little. In the sixth round, against the Pole Antoni Radzimski, the future silver medalist, he lost. “I started to be a little too confident, I saw myself winning the tournament,” he analyzes. But David is resourceful, and wins his next two matches. In round 9, he challenged Mark Smirnov. “I lost. I made a mistake quite quickly and I was not able to make up for my mistake,” judges the bronze medalist.
The Kazakh Mark Smirnov is titled, David mentally wins his last game and finishes the competition with 8.5 points out of 11. He only lost to the winner of the championship and his runner-up, with a total of eight victories in eleven games !
“I am proud of my son. The work he has done is colossal. He was able to bounce back when necessary. He already has a very good track record,” says Marius Voinéa, his father. “I would have dreamed of gold. But I'm not unhappy! I am even very satisfied. This is a very nice result. I think it’s deserved,” smiles David.
The young player from C'Chartres savors this new charm all the more, as he had been excluded from international competitions by the French Chess Federation. In May 2024, his name did not appear in the list of players selected for the Performance Plan. Mediation between the FFE and the family, around the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, allowed his reintegration and his participation in the World Championships. “This is the second medal that I have brought to France. I am very happy about it! Across the European continent, we are two French, Marc Llari (U10 silver) and me and a Pole (Ndlr: Antoni Radzimski) to have brought home a medal and that’s it,” notes the young champion.
David's character is an undeniable quality of the young champion for the president of C'Chartres Échecs: “After his defeat, he regained two matches and found himself again at the top of the championship before losing against the winner. He was fourth player in the ranking, he finished third, it’s a very good competition,” says François Gilles. The manager also notes the prowess of his young graduate who now displays an ELO of 2274, a gain of 33.2 during the Worlds. “He is close to being an international master. Among all the French entered in the World Championships, only two have taken points. Thirty is exceptional,” assures François Gilles.
To become an International Master, David Lacan-Rus will still have to achieve two out of three standards (he had the first in 2023). He will try to win his second in Rouen (Seine-Maritime), during the closed chess tournament from December 26 to 30.
