Ranking: 3º (January 99)
The current number three in the world learned to play the game of chess
at the age of five (that was in 1980!). When he was only 11 he gained his
first master norm, at 14 he was second in the world u-16 World Championships
and he gained the title of Grandmaster in Guarapava Brazil in 1991.
Kramnik is one of the very few GM's who has never been an International Master. He has had several trainers, notably his father, Zeshkovsky and a certain gentleman called Garry Kasparov, more recently he has had the services of Dolmatov as his personal assistant.
Kasparov particularly had a big influence on Kramnik's career, and to this we can only be grateful as it was at Kasparov's insistence that the then 17 year old Kramnik was included in the Russian team for the 1992 Chess Olympics in Manila where he helped his team to win the Gold Medal and picked up the individual Gold medal for best performance on board four oh and the Grandmaster title for this spectacular performance.
Although a lot of people have drawn parallels between Kasparov and Kramnik both their styles of play and their personal characters appear to be quite different.
Kramnik was not perhaps as disciplined as Kasparov in that the young Vladimir was said to be fond both of the odd tipple and a smoke.
Never-the less Vladimir Kramnik does seem dedicated to the game of chess and it is said that he devoted six hours a day to study of the game. It paid off because after his emergence onto the world scene he steadily climbed in rating and won tournament after tournament, he is now regarded rightly as a true star of |world chess and is one of the select band of professionals who belong to that exclusive club known as the "elite". While he has excelled in tournament play, his match record is not nearly as good, he was eliminated from the 1993-96 PCA World Championship Cycle by Gata Kamsky in the quarter finals and by Gelfand from the FIDE version. He declined to take part in the 1996 World Championship knock out in Gronigen because he said that Karpov had been given too big an advantage by being allowed to go directly to the final.
However in 1998 Kramnik rated third in the world at this point was selected (hand picked) to play a qualifying match against the then World Number two Vishy Anand for the right to play challenge Garry Kasparov to a match for Kasparov's version of the title. Anand declined to take part and in came Shirov to replace the Indian. The match went ahead in Spain in February 1998 and to almost universal surprise Shirov won the match comfortably and won the right to challenge Kasparov, a match however that did not subsequently take place, this has been branded variously one of the worst scandals in modern chess. It now seems as if both Shirov and Kramnik went ahead and played the match without having a valid contract signed by all parties. The full story has never come out to everyone's satisfaction but one thing is clear - Kramnik lost fair and square to Shirov.
Kramnik just got on with his life and kept on playing and chalking up new victories in tournament play. His style is regarded as universal, highly positional in appearance he also has a fabulous capacity for hard work at the board and he is tactically very sharp.
Kramnik finally got to play World Champion Garry Kasparov in a match in 1998 in Moscow - but it was a blitz (i.e. 5 minute chess) match rather than the full time game which everyone would like the two of them play against each other. However as a blitz match it had a certain interest and, this match was transmitted to the world from the Hotel Cosmos via the internet employing Shahcom's sensory boards. The match ended in a 12-12 tie which seemed to suit both players.
Whenever Kramnik plays he is likely to be among the favourites to take first prize. He is especially talented at speed and blindfold chess, and some say that he is the best blitz player in the world today - although it must be said that Kasparov held his own with young Vladimir in their blitz match.
Kramnik decided to take part in the 1999 FIDE World Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada USA, there he was knocked out in the Quarter-finals by England's Mickey Adams.