Vladimir Kramnik is the 14th official world chess champion. He wrote some chess books like “My Life and Games”, “Positional Play” etc.
He was born on June 25, 1975 at Tuapse, Russia. His father taught him about chess at the age of 4, and join local pioneer at 5 and became Tuapse Champion at age of 7. At 11, he joined Botvinnik School of chess where he made a great progress.
In 1991, he won the World U18 Chess Championship, the next year, he was member of Russian Olympic team without undergoing elimination process as requested by Garry Kasparov, the World Champion and Board 1 of team. But Kramnik and Kasparov proved it in the Olympiad winning gold in team, individual and performance with 8 wins 0 loss and 1 draw.
From 1992 to 2000, Kramnik moved into the world’s elite chess tournaments winning some tournaments like, Chalkidiki 1992, Dortmund 1995, Monaco 1996, Dos Hermanas 1997, Wijk Ann Zee 1998, Monaco 1998-99, Linares 2002 and many.
He tried to receive higher education, but it was too difficult for him to combine chess with serious studies. Curiously enough, he dropped out of college right after becoming world champion. In 1996, he entered the University in Novgorod, where he first studied foreign languages and later transferred to the department of Philosophy, but never got his diploma. He had a clip from a local student newspaper: "Dear students, please don't follow the path of Vladimir Kramnik. Our country does need champions, but even more so it needs philosophers and foreign language specialists".
In 2000, there was an unsettled match between Kasparov and Alexei Shirov, the winner of candidate match against Kramnik since the required funds not materialized. Also with Viswanathan Anand, the 2nd highest rated player at that time. Instead, the 16-game match was arranged for Kramnik sponsored by Braingames.com, then Kasparov lost the match with 0 wins 2 losses and 13 draws.
Kramnik's playing style is characterized by his solid positional understanding and his ability to outmaneuver his opponents in quiet, strategic battles. He is also known for his proficiency in the endgame, where his precise calculation and deep understanding of the nuances of chess come to the fore.
In 2002, He played an 8-game match with Deep Fritz and ended in a draw with 2 wins 2 losses and 4 draws. And a rematch on 2006 with 0 wins 2 losses and 4 draws and received a €500,000. And won the 6-game match with Anand with 3.5/6 points.
In 2004, he retained the title from Peter Leko with 2 wins 2 losses and 10 draws with total cash prize of 1 million Swiss franc.
In 2006, he agreed with reunification match with FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov as challenger. Since the title was split into two (PCA and FIDE) started on 1993. Kramnik retained the title with 5 wins 4 losses and 7 draws. He was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, an uncommon form of arthritis, in some cases, he withdrawn from some tournaments like in Wijk Ann Zee 2006.
In 2007, the 1948 World Championship format implemented but this time double round robin with 8 players, Kramnik got 2nd place with 8/14 points behind Viswanathan Anand with 9/14. Some top players and chess leaders incensed that there will be a world rematch incase Kramnik will not win the championship.
In 2008, a rematch happened between Kramnik and Anand, Kramnik lost the title with 1 win 3 losses and 7 draws due to opponent’s superior opening preparation.
Even though not holding the title, Kramnik managed to win many elite’s chess tournaments like Zuerich 2009, Bilbao 2010, Dortmund 2011, World Cup 2013 etc.
He wanted to regain the title, but he was fall short in 2 candidates, he lost to Alexander Grischuk in semifinals in 2011 and lost to Magnus Carlsen in a tie-break in 2013, behind Anand and Sergey Karjakin in 2014 and 5th place in 2018.
In 2019, Kramnik announced his retirement from professional chess, marking the end of an illustrious career that spanned over three decades. His contributions to the game, have left an indelible mark on the world of chess, he popularized Petroff Defense and Catalan Opening.
He will focus more with his family and chess education, he might still participate in rapid or blitz in some occasions. Now, he is actively participating in Titled Tuesday tournaments in chess com.
There are 3253 games listed in the chessbase 2021.
Let’s look of his best games which feature in our GMG page.