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Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (Russian: Владимир Борисович Крамник) (born June 25, 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster and the current undisputed World Chess Champion. Since January 2007 Kramnik has been rated 2766 in the FIDE Elo rating list, ranking third in the world.

In October 2000, he beat Garry Kasparov in a sixteen game match played in London, and became the Classical World Chess Champion. In late 2004, Kramnik successfully defended his title against challenger Péter Lékó in a drawn fourteen game match played in Brissago, Switzerland.

In October 2006, Kramnik, still considered the Classical World Champion, defeated reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match, the FIDE World Chess Championship 2006. The match was mired with controversy over Topalov’s protests about Kramnik’s frequent use of the bathroom. Kramnik forfeited Game 5 after refusing to play when the Appeals Committee altered the conditions of the match. The match was tied at 6-6 after 12 regular games and Kramnik won the rapid tie-break 2.5-1.5.

Biography

Vladimir Kramnik was born in the town of Tuapse, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is occasionally asserted that his real name was Sokolov but this is not the case (though it is a family name). His father’s birth name was Boris Sokolov, but he took his stepfather’s surname when his mother (Vladimir’s grandmother) remarried. As a child, Vladimir Kramnik studied in the chess school established by Mikhail Botvinnik. His first notable result in a major tournament was his gold medal win as first reserve for the Russian team in the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila. His selection for the team caused some controversy in Russia at the time, as he was only sixteen years old and had not yet been awarded the grandmaster title, but his selection was supported by Garry Kasparov. He went on to win eight games and one draw with no losses.

The following year, Kramnik played in the very strong tournament in Linares. He finished fifth, beating the then world number three, Vassily Ivanchuk, along the way. He followed this up with a string of good results, but had to wait until 1995 for his first major tournament win at normal time controls, when he won the strong Dortmund tournament, finishing it unbeaten. Kramnik continued to produce good results, including winning at Dortmund (outright or tied) for three successive years between 1996 and 1998. He is the second of only four chess players to have reached a rating of 2800 (the first being Kasparov).

World champion
Classical World Chess Championship 2000

In 2000, he played a sixteen game match against Garry Kasparov in London, for the Classical Chess World Championship. Kramnik began the match as underdog, but his adoption of the Berlin Defence to Kasparov’s Ruy Lopez opening was very effective. With the white pieces, Kramnik pressed Kasparov hard, winning Game Two and overlooking winning continuations in Games Four and Six. Kasparov put up little fight thereafter, agreeing to short draws with the white pieces in Games 9 and 13. Kramnik won the match 8.5 – 6.5 without losing a game (this was only the second time in history that a World Champion had lost a match without winning a single game). This event marked the first time Kasparov had been beaten in a World Championship match.

After London

In October 2002, Kramnik competed in Brains in Bahrain, an eight game match against the chess computer Deep Fritz in Bahrain. Kramnik started well, taking a 3 – 1 lead after four games. However, in game five, Kramnik made what has been described as the worst blunder of his career (a blunder that pales in comparison to his loss against Deep Fritz 10 in 2006), losing a knight in a position which was probably drawn. He quickly resigned. He also resigned game six after making a speculative sacrifice, although subsequent analysis showed that with perfect play, he might have been able to draw from the final position. The last two games were drawn, and the match ended tied at 4 – 4.

In February 2004 Kramnik won the Tournament of Linares outright for the first time (he had tied for first with Kasparov in 2000), finishing undefeated with a +2 score, ahead of Garry Kasparov, the world’s highest-rated player at the time.

Title defence
Classical World Chess Championship 2004

From September 25, 2004, until October 18, 2004, he successfully defended his title as Classical World Chess Champion against challenger Péter Lékó at Brissago, Switzerland. The 14-game match was poised in favor of Lékó right up until Kramnik won the final game, thus forcing a 7 – 7 draw and ensuring that Kramnik remained world champion.[1] The prize fund was 1 million Swiss francs, which was about USD $770,000 at the time. Because of the drawn result, the prize was split between the two players.

Reunification match
FIDE World Chess Championship 2006

When Garry Kasparov broke with FIDE, the federation governing professional chess, to play the 1993 World Championship with Nigel Short, he created a rift in the chess world. In response, FIDE sanctioned a match between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman for the FIDE World Championship, which Karpov won. Subsequently, the chess world has seen two “champions”: the classical lineage dating back to Steinitz and the FIDE endorsed champion.

When Kramnik defeated Kasparov and inherited the classical championship, he also inherited its surrounding controversy.

At the most recent FIDE world championship (FIDE World Chess Championship 2005), Kramnik refused to participate, but indicated his willingness to play a match against the winner to unify the world championship. After the tournament, negotiations began for a reunification match between Kramnik and the new FIDE World Champion — Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

In April 2006, FIDE announced a reunification match between Kramnik and Topalov — the FIDE World Chess Championship 2006. The match took place in Elista, Kalmykia. After the first four games, Kramnik led 3-1 (out of a maximum of 12). After the fourth game, however, Topalov protested that Kramnik was using the toilet suspiciously frequently, implying that he was somehow receiving outside assistance whilst doing so. Topalov said that he would refuse to shake hands with Kramnik in the remaining games. The Appeals committee decided that the players’ toilets be locked and that they be forced to use a shared toilet, accompanied by an assistant arbiter.

Kramnik refused to play the fifth game unless the original conditions agreed for the match were adhered to. As a result, the point was awarded to Topalov, reducing Kramnik’s lead to 3-2. Kramnik stated that the appeals committee was biased and demanded that it be replaced. As a condition to continue the match, Kramnik insisted on playing the remaining games under the original conditions of the match contract, which allows use of the bathroom at the players’ discretion.

The controversy resulted in a heavy volume of correspondence to Chessbase and other publications. The balance of views from fans was in support of Kramnik.[1] Prominent figures in the chess world, such as John Nunn, Yasser Seirawan, and Bessel Kok also sided with Kramnik.[2] [3] [4] The Russian and Bulgarian Chess Federations supported their respective players. [5] Kramnik’s behavior during the match earned him widespread support in the chess community. Ironically, allegations have arisen in the mainstream media and among top players that Topalov has been receiving computer guidance from a signalling system with his manager. Silvio Danailov[2]

After twelve regular games the match was tied 6-6, although Kramnik continued to dispute the result of the unplayed fifth game until the end of the tournament. On October 13, 2006, the result of the disputed fifth game became moot as Kramnik won the rapid tie-break by a score of 2.5-1.5.

Kramnik is scheduled to defend his title at the next FIDE World Championship, which will be an 8 player tournament taking place in Mexico City from October 24 to November 12, 2007.[3]

Deep Fritz match

Kramnik played a six game match against the computer program Deep Fritz in Bonn, Germany from November 25 to December 5, 2006, losing 2-4 to the machine, with 2 losses and 4 draws. He received 500,000 Euros for playing and would have gotten another 500,000 Euros had he won the match. Deep Fritz version 10 ran on a computer containing two Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs. Kramnik received a copy of the program in mid-October for testing, but the final version included an updated opening book.[4] Except for limited updates to the opening book, the program was not allowed to be changed during the course of the match. The endgame tablebases used by the program were restricted to 5 pieces[5] even though a complete 6 piece tablebase is widely available.

On November 25, the first game ended in a draw at the 47th move.[6] A number of commentators believe Kramnik missed a win.[7] Two days later, the second game resulted in a victory for Deep Fritz, when Kramnik made what might be called the “blunder of the century” according to Susan Polgar, when he failed to defend against a threatened mate-in-one.[8] (see also Deep Fritz v. Vladimir Kramnik blunder). The third, fourth and fifth games in the match ended in draws. In the last game Fritz with the white pieces impressively defeated the World Champion[9], winning the match.

There is now speculation that interest in human vs. computer chess competition will plummet as a result of the Bonn match and other recent matches involving Kasparov, Kramnik, Adams, and various chess programs. According to Monty Newborn, for example, “the science is done”. [6]

Private life and health

Kramnik has been diagnosed with a rare form of arthritis, called ankylosing spondylitis. It causes him great physical discomfort while playing. In January 2006, Kramnik announced that he would skip the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee to seek out treatment for his arthritis. [7]. He returned from treatment in June 2006, playing in the 37th Chess Olympiad. He scored a +4 result, earning the highest performance rating (2847) of the 1307 participating players.

On December 31, 2006 he married French journalist Marie-Laure Germon. [10]

Source page: Wikipedia under Wikipedia license

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