Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik
Kramnik at the Candidates Tournament 2018
Full name	Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik
Country	Soviet Union (until 1992) Russia (since 1992)
Born	(1975-06-25) 25 June 1975 (age 49) Tuapse, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Title	Grandmaster (1992)
World Champion	2000–06 (Classical) 2006–07 (undisputed)
FIDE rating	2753 (November 2024)
Peak rating	2817 (October 2016)
Peak ranking	No. 1 (January 1996)[1]

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (Russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He 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, during which he faced cheating accusations. 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. He reached a peak rating of 2817 in October 2016, which makes him the joint-eighth-highest-rated player of all time.

Kramnik publicly announced his retirement as a professional chess player in January 2019. He stated he intends to focus on projects relating to chess for children and education.