Paris match: Niemann wins again, widens the gap

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/22/2024 – Two days into the match against Etienne Bacrot in Paris, Hans Niemann already has a 6-point lead, as he scored a win and a draw in Wednesday's classical games. Niemann, who comes from beating Anish Giri and Nikita Vitiugov in similar contests, has now climbed to world number 20 in the live ratings list. | Photo: Frans Peeters

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Up to world number 20

For a second day in a row, Hans Niemann signed a draw (with black) and a win (with white) in his match against Etienne Bacrot in Paris. The 21-year-old now has a 6-point lead over the experienced Frenchman in the 5-day match. Two more classical games will be played on Thursday, while the rapid and blitz sections will take place on Friday and Saturday.

Niemann has so far played 16 classical games in August, with 5 wins, 10 draws and 1 loss to his name. These results gained him 18 rating points - Giri is higher-rated than him, while Vitiugov and Bacrot stand below him in the ranking, though they are both players belonging to the world top 100. These 18 rating points allowed Niemann to climb to the 20th spot in the live ratings list. He is now tied with Levon Aronian, as both have a 2729 Elo rating now.

The ascent came a bit too late for Niemann to make it to the United States team in the upcoming Chess Olympiad, but given the form he has shown this month, it is likely that he will get a chance to represent his country in the future.

Despite playing two games per day, Niemann got to enjoy France's capital, as he shared in his latest post on X.

Niemann 1 - 0 Bacrot

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.