Yannick Pelletier Yannick Pelletier Yannick Pelletier (born September 22, 1976 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland) is a Swiss chess player who lives in Paris, France. He completed his final Grandmaster norm at the 2000 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul and was officially awarded the Grandmaster title in 2001. Pelletier won the Swiss Chess Championship 6 times, in 1995, 2000, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2017. He has also won numerous titles at the Swiss Team Championship with his first club Biel, and later the SG Zurich. In 2005, he won the German Bundesliga with Werder Bremen. He also won the French Team Championship with Clichy in
Tweener (tennis) version was called the "Gran Willy"), Yannick Noah, Ilie Nastase, Gabriela Sabatini (whose version became known as "the Sabatweenie"), Roger Federer, Juan Martín del Potro, Nick Kyrgios, Daria Kasatkina, Agnieszka Radwańska and Simona Halep. The origin of the backward shot is unclear; both Argentine Guillermo Vilas and French player Yannick Noah claim to have invented it. Both players used it somewhat regularly in the 1970s. Vilas was inspired by an advertisement where a polo player hit a backwards shot between his horse's hind legs. He debuted his version in a 1974 exhibition match at the courts of Obras Sanitarias Club