 Étienne Bacrot in 2023 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1983-01-22)22 January 1983 (age 42) Lille, France |
| Chess career | |
| Country | France |
| Title | Grandmaster (1997) |
| FIDE rating | 2627 (November 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2749 (November 2013) |
| Peak ranking | No. 9 (January 2005) |
Étienne Bacrot (French pronunciation:[etjɛnbakʁo]; born 22 January 1983) is a Frenchchessgrandmaster, and as a child, achess prodigy.
He competed at theCandidates Matches in 2007 and won theAeroflot Open in 2009. He passed 2700FIDErating in 2004 and in January 2005 he became the first French player to enter the top 10.
Bacrot won an individual bronze medal at the37th Chess Olympiad in 2006 for his performance on board one,[1] as well as four medals at the World Team Championships.
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He started playing at age 4. By 10, Bacrot was winning junior competitions, and in 1996, at 13 years of age, he won againstVasily Smyslov. He became aGrandmaster in March 1997 at the age of 14 years and 2 months, making him the youngest person at the time to have held the title untilRuslan Ponomariov took the record that December. He was previously coached byJosif Dorfman.
Bacrot served as one of the four advisors to the world team in the 1999Kasparov versus the World event.
He has a son, Alexandre, and a daughter, Victoria, with Nathalie Bonnafous.
In 2023, Bacrot took part in theChess World Cup in Baku as the 52nd seed, making it to the fourth round after defeating Nay Lin Tun,Aleksandar Indjic and the 13th seedYu Yangyi from China, before losing to Indian GMVidit Gujrathi. He, then, participated in theFIDE Grand Swiss 2023, where he scored 6,5/11 and was in contention for a top 2 finish until round 8 when he lost againstFabiano Caruana after blundering in time pressure. In this strong tournament he beat Belgian GMDaniel Dardha, German GMNiclas Huschenbeth and 2720-rated GMYu Yangyi, with a TPR of 2749.After the Grand Swiss, Bacrot played on board 1 for France in theEuropean Team Chess Championship scoring 4/8 as France finished in seventh place.
Bacrot has played several matches against prominent players in his home town ofAlbert. In 1996, he beatVasily Smyslov 5–1, in 1997 lost toViktor Korchnoi 4–2, in 1998 defeatedRobert Hübner 3½–2½, in 1999 lost toAlexander Beliavsky 3½–2½, in 2000 lost toNigel Short 4–2, in 2001 tied 3–3 withEmil Sutovsky, in 2002 beatBoris Gelfand 3½–2½, and in 2004 (there was no match in 2003) won againstIvan Sokolov 3½–2½.
| Achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Youngest chess grandmaster ever March–December 1997 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |