DTFC Vladimir Kramnik B-Day Classic

The Daily Tournaments Fans Club (DTFC) presents to you the 2021 edition of the Vladimir Kramnik B-Day Classic.

Vladimir Kramnik (Владимир Борисович Крамник), the 14th World Chess Champion, was born 25 June 1975 in Tuapse (a port town on the Black Sea coast of Russia) to a Russian father and Ukrainian mother. He joined the famous Botvinnik chess school for young hopefuls at the age of 11 and became the World Champion under 16 and later, under 18. In 2000, at 25, he ended the 15-year reign of Garry Kasparov.

In 2004 Kramnik successfully defended his title against Peter Leko.

In 2006 Kramnik won the unifying title match against FIDE champion Veselin Topalov. Following the temporary split of Kasparov from FIDE in 1993, there were for a time two World Champions. This thrilling match saw a clash of styles (the aggressive tactician Topalov versus the strategist Kramnik) and a "toilet war" in which the Bulgarian delegation accused Kramnik of cheating during the match. As a consequence, similar to Korchnoi and Karpov, Topalov and Kramnik refused to shake hands in the future.

In 2007, Kramnik lost his title to Viswanathan Anand. He remained a strong contender to the day he officially retired from chess (2019). In the 2013 Candidates Tournament, Kramnik shared first place with Magnus Carlsen, who won due to tiebreaks.

In 2006, Kramnik married French journalist Marie-Laure Germon, according to the Orthodox ritual in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. The couple has two kids and resides in Geneva.

Kramnik is a fan of football and has a lasting friendship with the boxing legends the Klitschko brothers, providing chess advice to them.

And now, if you ever wondered how tall Kramnik is, he's 195 cm!

So what of Kramnik's playing style? If we go back in the line of World Chess Champions, we can notice a tradition of champions, playing attacking chess with grandiose complications and combinations (Alekhine, Tal, Topalov) and then the alternative tradition of champions playing slow positional chess, happy to exchange their queens and enter winning endgames (Capablanca, Karpov, Kramnik). However, there's one more element to Kramnik's game that stands out: he was a great theoretician and made powerful contributions to opening theory. He is famous for playing 80 consecutive games at the top level with no loss! With the black pieces, Kramnik generally played for a draw using the Berlin Defense and the Petrov Defense (and it may be safely stated that he revived these openings, restoring their reputation), switching to the Sicilian when playing for the win. Similarly, he revived the Semi-Tarrasch against d4 to complement his solid Semi-Slav and Nimzo-Indian. With the white pieces, Kramnik is a d4 player, remembered for playing masterfully the Catalan opening and, later in his career, the Reti opening (which can of course transpose). 

Finally, since this is a thematic tournament, a few words on the Catalan. The Catalan derives its name from Catalonia, where the tournament organizers of the 1929 Barcelona tournament asked Savielly Tartakower to create a new chess opening to honor Catalonia. The opening featured prominently in the play of Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Korchnoi, Kasparov, before being adopted by Kramnik. The Catalan is considered a safe and solid opening, allowing White to exert long-term positional pressure.