Niemann obtains clear victory over Bacrot in Paris

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/25/2024 – Hans Niemann clearly defeated Etienne Bacrot in the blitz section of their match in Paris to end the 5-day contest with a 15-point edge over the Frenchman. This was Niemann's third consecutive match victory in the "Hans Niemann against the world" series. Thanks to his remarkable performances, Niemann climbed to the 17th spot in the classical live ratings list. | Photo: Frans Peeters
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A 9-3 win in blitz

Hans Niemann played 3 multi-format matches throughout August. True to his nature, the intrepid 21-year-old dubbed his series of matches "Hans Niemann against the world". Remarkably, the US grandmaster obtained clear victories in all 3 matches. He started with the strongest opponent, Anish Giri, in Utrecht before facing Nikita Vitiugov and Etienne Bacrot in London and Paris respectively.

After losing his match in Utrecht, the ever-witty Giri shared on X:

Particularly remarkable was Niemann's performance in classical chess, where he scored 11½ points in 18 games, with only 1 loss (in his first game against Giri). The performance in slow games gained Niemann 22 rating points, allowing him to climb to the 17th spot in the live ratings list - surpassing the likes of Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Levon Aronian and Richard Rapport.

After beating Bacrot by a 9-3 score in the blitz section of their match, Niemann hinted on X that there might be more matches to come.

Amid the multitudinous online events organised lately - at times with complicated formats - the head-to-head, over-the-board format in stylised venues adds variety to the elite chess ecosystem. It was a nice change of pace after the (much welcomed) online chess boom which emerged after the 2020 pandemic.

Etienne Bacrot, Hans Niemann

A crowd of chess fans followed the games closely at the Blitz Society Bar in the French capital | Photo: Frans Peeters

Vladimir Kramnik

Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik watching the games from a comfy spot | Photo: Frans Peeters  

All games

Games 1-6 classical; games 7-12 rapid; games 13-24 blitz

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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.