Russian chess player Vladimir Borishovich Kramnik was born on 25 June 1975 in Tuapse.  His peak World Ranking was 1st (January 1996). His peak rating was 2811 (in January 2002 and May 2013). He learnt to play chess from his parents at the age of four and he started to play chess at the local Pioneer’s Palace when he was five. He was only seven when he had first class qualification and at the age of eight he won the Tuapse adult championship. At the age of eleven he was master candidate.

In 2000 October in London he won the Professional Chess Association (PCA) “classic” World Champion title in a 16 games match against Garry Kasparov by 8 ½-6 ½. In the end of 2004 he tied with Peter Leko in the classic World Champion match (7-7) and defended his title. In 2006 FIDE and PCA announced a reunification match with the intent to reunite the World Championship again after the split in 1993. Kramnik was the PCA classic champion and he played with FIDE candidate Veselin Topalov. The match finally took place in Elista, Russia, between 23 September and 13 October 2006. The game that was planned 12 games originally ended up in a tie, and finally in the playoff Kramnik won by 8 ½-7 ½ and won the unification match. Kramnik became the first chess player who undisputedly claimed World Champion title of both FIDE and PCA. In September 2007 Kramnik lost his title when he finished second behind Viswanatan Anand in the Candidates Tournament. In the 2008 World Championship match he lost against Anand by 6 ½-4 ½ and could not win back his title. In the 2013 Candidates Tournament he tied first place with Magnus Carlsen but Carlsen qualified for the Championship match.

Between 1992 and 2014 he represented Russia in eight Chess Olympiads. In 1992 he won individual gold medal on two boards and won team gold as well. In 1994 he won team gold. In 2006 he won individual gold again, and both in 2010 and 2012 won team silver.