Home > Vladimir Kramnik

Kramnik was born in the town of Tuapse , on the shores of the Black Sea. As a child, he 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, draw one, and lose none.

The following year, Kramnik played in the very strong tournament in Linares. He finished fifth, beating the then world number three, Vassily IvanchukVassily Ivanchuk (born March 18 1969 in Berejiany, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. Ivanchuk has an ELO rating of 2705 on the FIDE October 2004 ratings list, making him #14 in the world. Ivanchuk has reached as high as #3 in the world with a rat 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 DortmundDortmund is a city in Germany, located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Population: 587,288 (1 January 2004). The River Ruhr flow to the south of the city and the Datteln-Hamm Canal to the north. The Dortmund-Ems Canal termin tournament, finishing it unbeaten.

Kramnik continued to produce good results (including winning at Dortmund, outright or tied, in 1996, 1997 and 1998). In 2000, he played a sixteen game match against Garry Kasparov in London, a match that was billed as a world championship match, and widely accepted as being one in the tradition going back to Wilhelm SteinitzWilhelm Steinitz ( May 17 1836 August 12 1900), born in Prague, was the first official World Champion of chess. Known for his original contributions to chess strategy such as his ideas on positional play, his theories were held in high regard by disparate. Kramnik began the match as underdog, but his adoption of the Berlin Defence to Kasparov's Ruy LopezThe Ruy Lopez sometimes known as the Spanish Game is a chess opening characterised by the moves 1. Bb5 (in algebraic notation). The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy Lopez de Segura who described it in his 1561 book on chess, whic opening was very effective, and although pressed hard by Kasparov in those games where the latter played white, repeatedly managed to avoid defeat. Kramnik won the match 8.5 - 6.5 without losing a game.

In October 2002, Kramnik competed in Brains in BahrainIn October 2002, Vladimir Kramnik and Deep Fritz competed in the eight-game Brains in Bahrain computer chess match, which ended in a draw. Kramnik won games 2 and 3 by "conventional" anti-computer tactics play conservatively for a long-term advantage the, an eight game match against the chess computer Deep FritzDeep Fritz is a multi-processor version of the computer chess engine Fritz written by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist. In October 2002, a version of Deep Fritz running on a Compaq 8-processor machine and Vladimir Kramnik competed in the Brains in Bahrain e in BahrainThe Kingdom of Bahrain or Bahrain is a borderless country in the Persian Gulf ( Southwest Asia/ Middle East, Asia). Saudi Arabia is to the west and is connected to Bahrain by a causeway, and Qatar is to the south across the Gulf of Bahrain. History Main a. 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, losing a knight in a position which was probably drawn. He quickly resigned. He also resigned game six, although subsequent analysis showed that with perfect playIn game theory, perfect play is the behavior or strategy of a player which leads to the best possible outcome for that player. For example, we can say that the game of tic tac toe ends in a tie with perfect play by both sides, because the game is simple e, he may 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 undivided first place in the Tournament of Linares for the first time, finishing undefeated ahead of Garry Kasparov, world's highest-rated player, with whom he had shared the title in 2000.

In the October 2004 FIDE ELO rating list, Kramnik is rated 2760, making him number three in the world (behind Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand).

From September 25, 2004 until October 18, 2004 he succesfully defended his title as PCA (classical) world champion against challenger Peter Leko. The outcome of the match between them was 7-7, which was sufficient to keep his title. [1]