| Étienne Bacrot | |
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| Full name | Étienne Bacrot |
| Country |  France |
| Born | January 22, 1983 Picardie, France |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2700 (No. 34 on the November 2009 FIDE ratings list) |
| Peak rating | 2731 (April 2005) |
Étienne Bacrot (French pronunciation: [etjɛn baˈkʁo]) (born January 22, 1983 in Picardie, France) is a French chess grandmaster and currently ranked second in France.
He started playing at 4; by 10 young Bacrot was already winning junior competitions and in 1996, at 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. On the January 2009 FIDE list, Bacrot had an Elo rating of 2721, making him number 21 in the world and France's number 1.
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.
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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).
Notable results
- Six times French champion (becoming at 16 years old the youngest French champion ever) with five in a row from 1999 to 2003 and then in 2008.
- 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 age 16 years old in Bastia, tied Anatoly Karpov in a rapid match 3-3 at 17 years old.
- Won Enghien-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. This qualified him for the Candidates tournament of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007 in May-June 2007, although he would have qualified on rating anyway. However he was eliminated from the Candidates in the first round of matches, losing 3.5-0.5 to Gata Kamsky.
- Won the 2006 FiNet Chess960 Open with a 9.5/11 score.
- Won the 2008 French Championship.[2]
- Won the 2009 Aeroflot Open.
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.
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 setting a new record at that time.
Rankings
- In the October 2008 FIDE list he had an Elo rating of 2705 (ranked 29th in the world).
- His Elo rating has been 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 25th best rating ever achieved by a chess player. [1]
- Ranked number two in France. (France is ranked 7 in the world [2]).
Notes
- ^ Schachserver Der Weiner Zeitung(Austria), "37th Chess Olympiad 2006"
- ^ Chessvine Article, "GM Etienne Bacrot wins French Championship"
External links
- Étienne Bacrot player profile at ChessGames.com
- FIDE rating card for Étienne Bacrot
- OlimpBase
- Interview with Etienne Bacrot
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