Biel R5: Bacrot beats Pelletier, Carlsen and Aleksev lead

Etienne Bacrot

France, 25 years old
Elo: 2691
World ranking: 33

Date and place of birth: 22.01.1983 in Lille, France
Lives in: Toulon
National ranking: 1
Best world ranking: 9 (April 2005)
Previous results in Biel: 2003 (2nd), 2004 (5th)

The Return of the Little Prince

Old-timers of the Biel Festival still remember the little 12-year-old prodigy who finished first of his tournament (a team competition among young swiss talents and an international team). This happened in 1995, when Etienne Bacrot first came to Biel.

It was only the beginning for the little prince of chess. What a career he’s had: world champion in U10 and U12, international master at age 12, grandmaster at age 14 and 2 months (at the time, the youngest in history), France champion for five consecutive years (1999-2003) and places regularly in the top-15 world ratings. In 2004, Etienne Bacrot passed the threshold of 2700 Elo points for the first time, while participating in more top tournaments and beating the best grandmasters, such as then world champion, Vladimir Kramnik (2005).

Born in Lille in January 1983, Etienne grew up in the Picardie region and lived in the village of Méricourt-sur-Somme. He is now married, has two children, and lives on the French Riviera. For a few years, he has been writing a column in the weekly “Paris Match.” In the last few months, he has developed an excellent personal website (in English and French). On www.chess22.fr he writes about his career and tournaments, as well as about international current events and tactical innovations. Etienne Bracot talks about the most important variations in his eyes. His candidness is appreciate, especially in regards to other grandmasters who prefer to keep their analyses private, by fear of benefiting their rivals.

With his usual candidness, the French player admits that he has not been in great shape recently. He had his ups and downs during some tournaments, especially at the Baku Grand Prix, which explains the loss of some Elo points (he stood at 2691 in July 2008), and his current 33rd place. But there is no law of series. Etienne Bacrot remembers that it was at the Biel Congress Hall, in 2003, when he achieved one of the best results of his young career when he won the 2nd place of the grandmasters tournament, behind Alexander Morozevich. It was also in Switzerland, in 1999, that he won the Lausanne Young Masters (unofficial junior world championship); he was then 16.

After 2003 and 2004, he will compete for the third time in the grandmasters tournament of Biel, with the determination of an ambitious outsider.

Simon Kümin, Olivier Breisacher

Links

• Official tournament site in English, French and German
• All games so far in PGN

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.