Vladimir Kramnik

Vladímir Borísovich Kramnik (Russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник), born on June 25, 1975 in Tuapse, Soviet Union, is a Russian International Grand Master, who held the title of fourteenth world champion Of chess.

Krámnik's style is positional and defensive technique. His positional-defensive ability allows him to deliver accurate counterattacks from his solid positions, which is quite frustrating for opponents, even more so if they face the Russian with an offensive approach. Thanks to this style, Kramnik reports great successes by drawing a lot and winning a few games with White. With the black pieces he is best known for being very comfortable with a draw, but in some cases achieving victories. He continues the school of Capablanca, Smyslov or Kárpov, among other world champions. He is a difficult player to beat.

In the year 2000 world champion Garri Kasparov selected Kramnik as his challenger. Kramnik defeated Kasparov when he was going through a bad personal moment and in a 16-game match played in London where the challenger defeated the champion without losing a single game, something not seen since the Capablanca vs. Lasker match of 1921. For many, this was a match for the World Classical Chess Championship and made Krámnik the champion, although the International Chess Federation (FIDE) did not recognize him as such. Kasparov had separated from this organization in 1993, founding the PCA (Professional Chess Association) and generating his own competition cycles for the title, which were not accepted as such by FIDE. In this way, Kasparov held a world champion title parallel to the champion titles awarded by FIDE, which created a high degree of confusion. It was Kramnik's victory over Veselin Topalov in 2006 that gave him the "unified" world champion who is accepted by almost all chess players.

Krámnik was born in the city of Tuapsé, on the shores of the Black Sea. As a child, he studied chess at Mikhail Botvinnik's school. His first great result in a major tournament was the gold medal at the 1992 Chess Olympiad.

The following year, Krámnik played in the Linares tournament. He finished in fifth position, defeating the then world number three, Vasili Ivanchuk. He continued his good game, but it wasn't until 1995 the year he won his first major tournament, in Dortmund.

Krámnik continued to achieve good results (including victories in Dortmund in 1996, 1997 and 1998). In the year 2000, he played the match against Gari Kasparov already mentioned, in London, an unofficial (ie not accepted by FIDE) World Championship match. Kramnik won by 8.5 - 6.5 without losing a game. In 2004 he managed to retain this title by achieving a mediocre 7-7 draw against Péter Lékó in Brissago, Switzerland.

In October 2002, Kramnik fought in Bahrain against the computer Deep Fritz in an eight game match. Krámnik started well, with a 3 - 1 lead, although the final score was 4 - 4.

In February 2004, Krámnik won the strong Linares Tournament alone for the first time (he had won jointly with Lékó in 2003), finishing undefeated ahead of Gari Kasparov, the player with the best rating at that time.

World Chess Champion 2006

Krámnik during a tournament in 2006.

On April 24, 2006, it was announced that Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, FIDE world champion, would play a 12-game match, with the unified world title at stake, which would take place in Elistá, capital of the Russian Autonomous Republic of Kalmykia.

On October 13, 2006, Vladimir Kramnik tied Veselin Topalov in the world championship match (not without much controversy over the so-called bathroomgate case, where it was rumored that Kramnik was cheating). and later he was proclaimed the winner in the semi-rapid playoff games with which he became the new official world champion, reuniting the two world champion titles that appeared after the 1993 schism.

• Results after 12 games: Krámnik - 6 points; Topalov - 6 points.
• Play 4 games of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.

Vladímir Kramnik, the new world chess champion, winning the tiebreaker by 2.5 to 1.5 points.

Match against Deep Fritz, chess machine, 2006

• Krámnik against Deep Fritz from November 25 to December 5, 2006.

Deep Fritz defeats Krámnik, 4-2, 2 victories for Deep Fritz and 4 draws.

There was an anecdote that Krámnik omitted a dunk in one move.

2007 Tournaments

In the 2007 Corus Chess Tournament, in the Netherlands, he was ranked 4th, with 8.0 points out of 13 possible, with 3 victories and 10 draws.

In March 2007, he won the prestigious Melody Amber Chess Tournament, in Monaco, with 15.5 points, leading second-placed Anand by 2 points.

On October 1, 2007, he was dethroned by the Indian chess player Viswanathan Anand, who had to play a match in 2008 against Kramnik to retain his title of World Champion, as established by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Victory in his match against Lékó

Krámnik (3rd in the world) defeated Lékó (8th in the world) by 4.5 points, who obtained 3.5 points, in the rapid chess duel played from April 24 to 30, 2007, in Miskolc, Hungary for the best of 8 games.

They played 2 games each game day. At a pace of 25 minutes plus 5 seconds per movement.

Levón Aronián wins the match 4-2

Levón Aronian, number 5 in the world, prevailed in the duel against Krámnik 4-2, it was played from May 4 to 6, 2007, 6 rapid games, in Yerevan, capital of Armenia.

There were 3 days of play, with 2 games a day, at a fast pace of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per play.

The Armenian Chess Federation was the organizer.

World Cup against Anand, October 2008

Krámnik tried to regain the world title against the reigning champion, the Hindu Vishwanathan Anand, in the 2008 World Chess Championship, a match agreed to 12 games. It was scheduled to take place between October 14 and November 2, 2008 at the Federal Palace of Art and Exhibitions in Bonn (Germany). However, the match ended on October 29 with the victory of Anand by 6.5 to 4.5, which in this way retained his crown. The prize of 1.5 million euros (which includes taxes and a percentage for FIDE) was distributed equally as stipulated in the rules.

The match used the classic time control: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20, and then 15 minutes for the end of the game. From movement 61 there was an increase of 30 seconds.

The chessgames.com database has 120 games of Anand vs. Kramnik, dating back to 1989. 31 games are excluded, as being rapid, blitz or blindfold.

Anand leads by 10 to 9.

Notable victories

Withdrawal

After having participated in the 2019 Tata Steel Chess tournament, in which Magnus Carlsen was the Winner, Vladimir Krámnik decides to retire from professional chess on January 30, 2019, announcing that he will dedicate himself to personal affairs and projects.