Étienne Bacrot

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Etienne Bacrot, January 2006

Etienne Bacrot (born January 22, 1983 in Picardie, France) is a French chess grandmaster.

He started playing at 4; by 10 young Bacrot was already winning junior competitions and in 1996, with 13 years of age, he won against Vasily Smyslov. He became a Grandmaster in March 1997 at the age of 14 years and 2 months, making him the youngest person to that date to have held the title (later in December, Ruslan Ponomariov took his record).

He has won several competition and notable games. He first passed the mark of 2700 in Elo rating in 2004. In January 2005, he became the first French player to enter the top 10. His highest Elo rating ever was 2731 in April 2005. In October 2006 FIDE list, Bacrot had an Elo rating of 2705, making him number eighteen in the world and France's number one.

Bacrot scored 6/8 in the 37th Chess Olympiad in 2006 against opponents averaging 2640, gaining 13 elo. This earned him the bronze medal for the third best individual performance in the Olympiad. One of his notable wins was against top American grandmaster Gata Kamsky. [1]

Bacrot served as one of the four advisors to the world team in the 1999 Kasparov versus the world event.

He has a son, Alexandre, with Nathalie Bonnafous.

1 Annual hometown game
2 Notable results
3 Team results
4 Youth results
5 Rankings
6 External links

[edit] Annual hometown game

As well as playing in tournaments and team competitions, Bacrot has since 1995 played an annual six-game match against a prominent player in his home town of Albert. In 1996 he beat Vasily Smyslov 5-1, in 1997 lost to Viktor Korchnoi 4-2, in 1998 defeated Robert Hübner 3.5-2.5, in 1999 lost to Alexander Beliavsky 3.5-2.5, in 2000 lost to Nigel Short 4-2, in 2001 tied 3-3 with Emil Sutovsky, in 2002 beat Boris Gelfand 3.5-2.5, and in 2004 won against Ivan Sokolov 3.5-2.5 (there was no match in 2003).

[edit] Notable results

5 times in a row french champion (becoming at 16 years old the youngest french champion ever):1999-2003
Beat Boris Gelfand at 19 years old 3.5-2.5 and Ivan Sokolov at 21 years old 3.5-2.5 in Albert.
Beat Judit Polgar 3-1 in a rapid match at 16 years old in Bastia, tied Anatoly Karpov in a rapid match 3-3 at 17 years old.
Won Eghien les Bains tournament in 1997 ahead of Viktor Korchnoi doing his final GM norm at 14 years old and 4 months.
Won Lausanne young masters in 1999 beating Ruslan Ponomariov in final.
Qualified for the quarter-final of the world rapid chess championships in 2003 in Cap d'Agde.
Accomplished an 11/11 score in french team championship in 2004.
Won Petrosian memorial with the world team in 2004 with the tied 3rd individual performance.
Won Karpov Poikovsky tournament in 2005 ahead of Viktor Bologan, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler and Alexey Dreev.
Finished third at Dortmund Sparkassen prestigious super tournament in 2005.
Finished third at the 2005 fide world cup beating Alexander Grischuk for bronze.
Won the 2006 FiNet Chess960 Open with a 9.5/11 score.

[edit] Team results

European team chess championship playing with France: 2nd in 2001, 3rd in 2005.
Many times French team champion and European club champion with Nao chess club.

[edit] Youth results

World champion in under-10 years old category.
World champion in under-12 years old category.
Beat Levon Aronian in a match in Albert.
IM at 12 years old.
GM at 14 years old beating a new record at that time.

[edit] Rankings

His Elo rating is above 2700 since July 2004.
Ranked number 9 in the world in every 2005 FIDE list, playing 55 games.
Achieved at his best 2731 which is the 19th best rating ever achieved by a chess player. [2]
Ranked number one in France. (France is ranked 4 in the world behind Russia, Ukraine and USA [3]).