He defended his title in 2004 against Peter Leko, and defeated the reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match in 2006.

His mother Irina Fedorovna is Ukrainian and is a music teacher, his biological father Boris Sokolov is Russian painter and sculptor.

His first notable result in a major tournament was his gold medal win as first reserve for the Russian team in the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila.

[citation needed] Kramnik continued to produce good results, including winning at Dortmund (outright or tied) ten times from 1995 to 2011.

In 1998, Kramnik faced Alexei Shirov in a Candidates match for the right to play Garry Kasparov for the Classical World Chess Championship, and lost 3½–5½.

Kramnik began the match as underdog, but his adoption of the Berlin Defence to Kasparov's Ruy Lopez opening was very effective.

He also resigned game six after making a speculative sacrifice, although subsequent analysis showed that he had drawing chances in the final position.

[citation needed] From 25 September 2004 until 18 October 2004, Kramnik retained his title as Classical World Chess Champion against challenger Péter Lékó at Brissago, Switzerland, by barely drawing the match in the last game.

After the fourth game, however, Topalov's coach/manager Silvio Danailov protested that Kramnik was using the toilet suspiciously frequently, implying that he was somehow receiving outside assistance whilst doing so.

[10] Prominent figures in the chess world, such as John Nunn, Yasser Seirawan, and Bessel Kok also sided with Kramnik.

[citation needed] Pursuant to the agreement reached before the 2007 tournament Kramnik and Anand played a match of the World Championship title in 2008 in Bonn.

[citation needed] Kramnik had exceptionally good results in 2009, winning once again in Dortmund and then winning the Category 21 (average Elo = 2763) Tal Memorial in Moscow with 6/9 and a 2883 rating performance ahead of world champion Anand, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Leko, Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich.

[17] He also participated in the London Chess Classic in December, finishing second to Magnus Carlsen, losing their head-to-head encounter on the Black side of the English Opening.

In May 2010 it was revealed that Kramnik had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov.

[19] In April–May 2010 he tied for 1st–3rd with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Gata Kamsky in the President's Cup in Baku and won the event on tie-break after all finished on 5/7.

[20] Kramnik also participated in Dortmund, but had a subpar showing, losing to eventual champion Ruslan Ponomariov and finishing in joint third place with 5/10.

[citation needed] Following the Olympiad, Kramnik participated in the Grand Slam Chess Masters final in Bilbao where he competed against Anand, Carlsen and Shirov.

[citation needed] Kramnik's attempt to defend his 2009 title at the Tal Memorial in Moscow ended with a 7th place, while he finished 5th in the London Chess Classic in England.

He won Dortmund for the tenth time, with Lê Quang Liêm in second place, and shared third behind Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich in the Russian Superfinal.

[24] However, in the earlier 6th Tal Memorial 2011 Moscow he came 8th out of 10, with 2 losses (to Nepomniachtchi and Svidler) and 7 draws, with Magnus Carlsen winning the overall tournament on tiebreak from Levon Aronian.

[27] In the Chess World Cup 2013, held in Norway from 11 August to 2 September, Kramnik finished in first place, defeating Dmitry Andreikin in the four-game final match 2½–1½.

He finished sixth with 4.5/9 in the opening blitz round-robin on 25 September, meaning that he was given one more game to play with the black pieces than with the white in the classical tournament.

The Paris Grand Chess Tour tournament was held from 9 – 12 June and was composed of a mixture of rapid and blitz games.

[44] He regularly participates in the Titled Tuesday tournament and has expressed concerns over cheating in online chess, including numerous high-profile cases.

Hikaru Nakamura believed this post was targeted towards him, and he responded with a statement on X reading: "Vladimir appears to be referencing my record...is he really accusing me of cheating???

[49] Kramnik played a six-game match against the computer program Deep Fritz in Bonn, Germany, from 25 November to 5 December 2006, losing 2–4 to the machine, with 2 losses and 4 draws.

Kramnik received a copy of the program in mid-October for testing, but the final version included an updated opening book.

In the last game, Kramnik played the aggressive Sicilian Defense in an attempt to win with black and hence even the match, but he was outplayed by Fritz.

In January 2006, Kramnik announced that he would skip the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee to seek out treatment for his arthritis.

[74] Using an opening novelty discovered years prior, Kramnik overwhelms Aronian on the board, foregoing castling in favour of the attack, culminating in a rook sacrifice followed by imminent checkmate against the white king.