Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a famous Russian chess player. He is a true master of positional play. He prefers to practice closed positions, when it is quite difficult for opponents to count the development of events. Kramnik is the 14th world chess champion. According to him, this is not a sport, but a real art. Already in childhood, in Tuapse, where the chess player Vladimir Kramnik came from, he beat not only peers, but also all adults. Even then, parents and his first trainers predicted Vladimir a great future.
Kramnik family
Vladimir Kramnik was born on 06.25.1975 in Tuapse. He has an older brother, Eugene. Their parents are creative people. My father studied at the Academy of Art and became a sculptor and artist. Mother graduated from the conservatory in Lviv and later worked as a music teacher. First, the parents of Vladimir and Eugene left for Stavropol, where employers promised them housing and the “Golden Mountains”. But it did not work out, and they returned to Tuapse, where Vladimir Kramnik came from.
Childhood
Kramnik started playing chess from an early age. When he was 3 years old, he watched the party of his brother and father. Once, noticing the close attention of the child, Vladimir's dad jokingly suggested that he place the pieces on the board. And the peanut immediately flawlessly completed the task. To his father’s surprised question whether he can play, Vladimir answered “yes.” A week later, he calmly beat his dad.
The very first coach of a young chess player was his father, who taught Vladimir to play until the age of four. After he began to attend a chess club in the Palace of Pioneers. There, he first fought with first-class children. Then Vladimir was coached by grandmaster Tseshkovsky.
At the age of seven, Vladimir Kramnik received 1 category. At 9, he became the champion of the Union among juniors. And at 10 he was considered the best player in all of Tuapse.
The beginning of the path to the chess Olympus
When Vladimir was 11 years old, they moved with their whole family to Moscow, and previously lived in Tuapse, where the chess player Vladimir Kramnik was born. In Moscow, Botvinnikov invited him to his school, who was helped by Garry Kasparov to coach the children. So Vladimir turned out to be a pupil of two strongest chess players. At the age of eleven, Kramnik becomes a candidate for master of sports. 2 years have passed, and he is already a master of sports. At 16 years old - the world champion among juniors.
Chess star
At the insistence of Kasparov, in 1992 the young Kramnik was included in the Russian national chess team. Vladimir lived up to expectations and scored out of 9 possible 8.5 points. Then he received the “gold”: in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 2013.
At the age of 17, Kramnik lost two final matches (at FIDE and PSA tournaments) to Kamsky and Gelfand. Since 1995, Vladimir begins to increasingly win victories in numerous competitions. As a result, in Russia, he excelled in skill in second place after Kasparov. In 2009, Kramnik became the first chess player to win the Dortmund Super Tournament 10 times. This achievement was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
World Cup Matches
The path to the title of world champion for Kramnik was somewhat unusual. Several scheduled matches with applicants fell through due to money difficulties and some disagreements. Kasparov decides to help Vladimir by offering a duel and putting his own world champion at stake. Harry was sure that he would win the victory, and did not enter into the contract a rematch. But Vladimir Kramnik is a chess player from God. And Kasparov loses, and his title passes to the opponent.
In 2002, Vladimir played a game of chess with the Deep Fritz computer program. The match ended in a draw. In 2004, Kramnik fought against Hungarian Peter Leko and hardly retained the world title, avoiding defeat in the last game. The score was 7: 7. Since 2004, Kramnik’s health has been deteriorating due to the rare form of arthritis that doctors discovered in the chess player. He hardly holds the position in the ten strongest.
The fight for the title of absolute world champion
In 2006, a match was held between Kramnik and Topalov for the title of absolute champion. The fight took place in Elista. It is worth to separately describe with what persistence, despite negative events, Vladimir Kramnik achieved this honorary title, whose biography contains many victories in chess tournaments. His duel for this title was accompanied by a scandal.
Kramnik has been accused of using computer prompts and frequent toilet use. The appeals committee changed the contract for the match unilaterally and thereby violated Vladimir’s rights. Kramnik did not come to the 5th party in protest. And he was credited with defeat.
But Vladimir Kramnik did not refuse further struggle and continued the fight. The first 12 games ended in a draw. Then, Kramnik defeated in a time-out. The total score outweighed in his favor. As a result, he was recognized as the absolute champion of the planet. He received a prize of half a million dollars and the right to participate in FIDE 2007.
In 2007, Kramnik lost the title to another famous chess player - Viswanathan Anand. In December of that year, a rematch was scheduled, which took place in 2008 and ended again with the victory of Anand.
