Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik, born 25 June 1975 in Tuapse on the Black Sea, is a Russian chess grandmaster. He held the Classical World Chess Champion title from 2000 to 2006, and from 2006 to 2007 he was the 14th undisputed World Chess Champion, the first to hold both the FIDE and Classical titles since Garry Kasparov split from FIDE in 1993.

Kramnik became Classical World Champion in 2000 by defeating Kasparov. He successfully defended that title against Peter Leko in 2004. In 2006, he beat the reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match, making him the undisputed champion. He lost the undisputed title in 2007 to Viswanathan Anand, who won the 2007 championship tournament ahead of Kramnik. Kramnik challenged Anand in 2008 to regain the title but lost. Between 2012 and 2018, he competed in four more Candidates tournaments. In January 2019, he publicly retired from professional chess to focus on chess projects for children and education.

His peak rating of 2817, reached in October 2016, places him joint-eighth-highest of all time. He is widely recognized for his contributions to opening theory. In recent years, he faced widespread criticism from other professionals and the media for accusing fellow players of cheating without solid evidence. Comments he made before the death of American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, whom he had repeatedly accused of cheating, led to an investigation by the FIDE Ethics & Disciplinary Commission. In July 2026, the commission issued him a two-year worldwide ban, with the second year suspended for a three-year probationary period.

Kramnik’s father, born Boris Sokolov, took his stepfather’s surname when Kramnik’s grandmother remarried. His mother, Irina Fedorovna, is a Ukrainian music teacher; his biological father, Boris Sokolov, is a Russian painter and sculptor. As a child, Kramnik studied at the chess school founded by Mikhail Botvinnik. His first major tournament success came at the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila, where he played as first reserve for Russia. His selection, controversial at the time because he was only a FIDE Master, was supported by Kasparov. Kramnik scored eight wins, one draw, and no losses, achieving a 2958 performance rating and winning a gold medal for best rating performance.

In 1993, he finished fifth at the strong Linares tournament, defeating then-world number three Vasyl Ivanchuk. His first major tournament win at normal time controls came in 1995, when he won the Dortmund tournament undefeated. That same year, he served as a second for Kasparov during Kasparov’s successful Classical World Championship match against Viswanathan Anand. In January 1996, Kramnik became world number one, sharing a 2775 FIDE rating with Kasparov but taking the top spot due to more games played. This ended Kasparov’s run as world number one, which had lasted since 1985, and made Kramnik the youngest ever to reach that ranking—a record that stood until Magnus Carlsen broke it in 2010. Kramnik’s six-month stint as number one was the only interruption to Kasparov’s reign from January 1986 to March 2006. He won the Dortmund tournament outright or tied ten times between 1995 and 2011. He was the second player, after Kasparov, to reach a rating of 2800. During his world championship reign, Kramnik did not regain the number-one ranking until January 2008, after losing the title to Anand; he and Anand both had a 2799 rating, but Kramnik was ranked first due to more games played. His 12-year gap between number-one rankings is the longest since the FIDE rating system began in 1971.

In the mid- and late 1990s, Kramnik struggled to qualify for a world championship match. In 1994, he lost a PCA candidates quarterfinal to Gata Kamsky 1½–4½, and later that year lost a FIDE candidates semifinal to Boris Gelfand 3½–4½. In 1998, he lost a candidates match for the right to face Kasparov to Alexei Shirov 3½–5½. In 1999, he lost in the FIDE knockout championship quarterfinals to Michael Adams 2–4. The planned Kasparov–Shirov match never happened due to a lack of suitable sponsorship; Shirov reportedly refused to play for a prize fund he considered too small. Kasparov then sought a match with the highest-rated player on FIDE’s list. Anand, the top-rated player, declined. In March 2000, Kasparov announced he would play Kramnik, then third on the rating list behind Kasparov and Anand (Shirov was fourth). This was controversial, especially because Kramnik had lost his qualifier to Shirov, making him the first player since 1935 to play a world championship match without qualifying. In 2000, Kramnik faced Kasparov in London for the Classical World Championship. He entered as the underdog but adopted the Berlin Defence.