GMEtienne Bacrot

Étienne Bacrot was born in Lille and began chess at four. He won world titles in the under-10 and under-12 age groups. Coached by Josif Dorfman, he became a grandmaster in 1997 at fourteen, briefly holding the record as the youngest GM. Matches in his hometown of Albert gave him early experience against older champions: he defeated Vasily Smyslov in 1996 and later beat Robert Hübner and Boris Gelfand. At sixteen, he won his first French championship.

Bacrot won five consecutive French titles from 1999 to 2003 and added further titles in later years. In 2005, he became the first French player to reach the world's top ten. He finished third in that year's World Cup, defeating Alexander Grischuk in the bronze-medal match. He subsequently played in the 2007 Candidates matches. His tournament victories include Poikovsky in 2005 and 2011 and the 2009 Aeroflot Open. He earned individual first-board bronze at the 2006 Olympiad. Beyond his own games, he served as an adviser in the 1999 Kasparov versus the World internet match.