Vladimir Kramnik

Russian chess grandmaster who was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007.

In 2000, Kramnik defeated Garry Kasparov and became the Classical World Chess Champion. He defended his title in 2004 against Peter Leko, and defeated the reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match in 2006. As a result, Kramnik became the first undisputed World Champion, holding both the FIDE and Classical titles, since Kasparov split from FIDE in 1993.

In 2007, Kramnik lost the title to Viswanathan Anand, who won the World Chess Championship 2007 tournament ahead of Kramnik. He challenged Anand at the World Chess Championship 2008 to regain his title, but lost. He remained a top player, playing in four more Candidates tournaments between 2012 and 2018, very nearly winning in 2013. Kramnik publicly announced his retirement as a professional chess player in January 2019 to focus on projects relating to chess for children and education.

Kramnik reached a peak rating of 2817 in October 2016, which makes him the joint-eighth-highest-rated player of all time. He is widely recognized for his contributions to opening theory.

Kramnik has been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, an uncommon form of arthritis. 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. He returned from treatment in June 2006, playing in the 37th Chess Olympiad. He scored a +4 result, achieving the highest rating performance (2847) of the 1307 participating players.

On 30 December 2006 Kramnik married French journalist Marie-Laure Germon at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. They have two children, daughter Daria, and son Vadim Vladimirovich. They reside in Geneva.