Etienne Bacrot French chess player, grandmaster Date of Birth: 22.01.1983 Country: France

1. Biography of Étienne Bacrot
2. Early Life and Achievements
3. Contributions to Chess
4. Career Highlights
5. Olympic Success and Team Championships
6. Personal Life

Biography of Étienne Bacrot

Étienne Bacrot is a French chess player and grandmaster, currently considered the best chess player in France. Bacrot, a true prodigy, had already won two major international championships by the age of 13, and at 14 years and 2 months old, he became a grandmaster. Bacrot continued to excel in chess, and he is now rightfully regarded as the best chess player in France.

Early Life and Achievements

Bacrot started playing chess at the age of 4 and by the age of 10, he was already winning junior championships. In 1996, at just 13 years old, Bacrot achieved a victory over Vasily Smyslov. At the age of 12, Bacrot earned the title of International Master, and in March 1997, at the age of 14 years and 2 months, he became a grandmaster. At that time, Bacrot was the youngest ever recipient of this prestigious title, although his record was broken by Ruslan Ponomariov later that year.

Contributions to Chess

In 1999, Bacrot served as one of the consultants for the "Kasparov versus the World" match, where Garry Kasparov played against a team of more than 50,000 players from 75 countries via the Internet. Bacrot's move was determined by voting, and after 61 moves, Kasparov declared checkmate in 25 moves, leading to the opponent's surrender. Bacrot trained under the guidance of Alexander Nikitin, one of Kasparov's former coaches, in the late 1990s.

Career Highlights

Bacrot has a long list of impressive victories. In 2004, he achieved a rating of over 2700 Elo, and in January 2005, he became the first French chess player to enter the top ten world rankings. In April of the same year, Bacrot reached his personal best Elo rating of 2731. Although his rating slightly declined afterward, he still had a rating of 2721 and held the 21st position in the world rankings and the first position in the French rankings in January 2009.

Olympic Success and Team Championships

At the 37th Chess Olympiad in 2006, Bacrot scored a total of 13 Elo points and won the bronze medal in the individual championship. One of his notable victories in the tournament was against the American grandmaster Gata Kamsky. Bacrot has also represented France in various international championships, helping the French team secure the second place in the 2001 European Championship and the third place in the 2005 edition. He also performed well in team championships at the national level in France.

Personal Life

Étienne Bacrot is married to Nathalie Bonnafous, and they have a son named Alexandre.