Vladimir Kramnik

was born in 1975 in Tuapse on the shores of the Black sea. Kramnik studied at the Botvinnik-Kasparov chess school and gained his place in the Russian Olympiad team at the early age of 16, going on to score a sensational 8.5/9, the best result in the whole Olympiad. This was followed by a series of magnificent tournament results, which peaked with his challenge for the world championship. In 2000 Kramnik played against chess legend Garry Kasparov and took the latter's title away from him. He went on to defend this successfully in 2004 against Peter Leko and in 2006 against FIDE champion Veselin Topalov, when he re-united the world championship titles. Kramnik, who lost his title to Anand in 2008, lives in Paris and has one daughter.