Vladimir Kramnik

Vladimir Kramnik, born 25 June 1975, is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007.

Vladimir Kramnik
Kramnik at the 2005 Corus chess tournament
Full name	Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik
Country	Russia
Title	Grandmaster
World Champion	2000–2006 (Classical) 2006–2007 (Unified)
FIDE rating	2801 (#2 on the Jan 2016 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating	2810 (January 2013)

In October 2000, he defeated Garry Kasparov in a match played in London, and became the Classical World Chess Champion. In late 2004, Kramnik successfully defended his title against challenger Peter Leko in a drawn match played in Brissago, Switzerland.

In October 2006, Kramnik, the Classical World Champion, defeated reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match. As a result, Kramnik became the first undisputed World Champion, since Garry Kasparov split from FIDE in 1993.

In 2007, Kramnik lost the title to Viswanathan Anand, who won the World Chess Championship tournament (not a classical match between the two players) ahead of Kramnik. He played Anand at the World Chess Championship match 2008, but lost.

Private life and health

Kramnik has been diagnosed with an uncommon form of arthritis, called ankylosing spondylitis. 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, earning the highest performance rating (2847) of the 1307 participating players.

On 30 December 2006 he married French journalist Marie-Laure Germon. He has a daughter named Daria who was born 28 December 2008.