Interview with Vladimir Kramnik

Summertime means vacations for must of us. Not for Kramnik who keeps working on Chess with the same energy as when he became World Champion 9 years ago. Many changes have occurred in his life during all this time, most for the good, and here he is, speaking frankly in this interview conducted exclusively for his own website.

How do you feel after winning Dortmund?

Kramnik pictured at the closing ceremony.
The number 9 symbolizes his 9 victories in Dortmund.

Very happy indeed. Dortmund was a quite strange event, because at the beginning things were not exactly going my way, maybe because I hadn’t played classical chess in a long time, or maybe because the tournament was very strong and the players very tough to beat. However, in the second half somehow everything started to go in the right direction. First of all I started to get some interesting positions which I hadn’t been able to manage during the first half; also I started to calculate well and I ended up playing quite a few interesting games. In the end everything went well but it is never as easy as it looks from outside.

Your best game 

After analyzing deeply the games I can say that all my victories were pretty good. A very important win came in the 8th round against Carlsen when I was able to take the lead ...

Kramnik beat Carlsen in a brilliant game on the 8th round. Photo: Dagobert Kohlmeyer
 

But I prefer the one from the last round against Naiditsch, because it was tenser than the others, and it required more energy and more calculations. Basically, there was only one serious mistake and it occurred at the end of the game. There were many difficult moves in this game, for instance Nb3, a move I am really proud of as it is very difficult to find. 

Here Kramnik played 38.Nb3!!

The knight was so strong on d4. Actually, I had put such an effort to bring that knight to d4 that it was quite difficult to force myself to consider moving it away from the centre, but once I started analyzing I realized that Nb3 was an excellent move. The game was also played at a very decisive round, the last one, which adds even more value.

Risking on the last round, when a draw was probably enough.

It was not only about winning the tournament. When I was playing the game, I did not know whether Carlsen, Leko or Jakovenko were winning their games or not, so it was very likely that if I made a draw I would have to share the first place. Maybe I would have won by tiebreak anyway, but it’s always nice to win alone. I had White and generally when I am White I try to win against any opponent. Another thing was that the position was getting interesting and very entertaining. At one point I could repeat moves and force a draw, but, besides the position was messy and unclear I decided that I should try for more. Finally things went well.

Are you able to work on chess now that you have had very important changes in your life?

Very nice things have changed my life recently. I got married on December 30th 2006 to Marie-Laure, a French journalist who works for the important newspaper Le Figaro

Kramnik and his wife Marie-Laure, at the wedding ceremony in Paris

Almost exactly 2 years later, on December 28th 2008, our first daughter Daria was born, bringing more joy to our lives.

Kramnik with his wife and daughter.

It was difficult at the beginning, but now I am ready to work hard again. I have had to make quite a few adjustments, to be able to study chess enough and at the same time spend enough time with my new family. I have had to cut down on some other daily activities like watching TV: now I have absolutely no time to watch television. So I can say that my daily schedule has become more intense, but in the end I still manage to work hard on chess. 

Daria, pictured in June.

Other new pictures have been added to the gallery of personal pictures of Kramnik and his family. Please use this link

Your view on the next FIDE WCC

There are some strange things like Kamsky qualifying because of a semi-final match against Topalov. He is not even in the top 20, while I am in the top 5 and I played the last match for the World Championship and even so I am not qualified directly. In the history of chess there has always been a rule that says that the loser of the last World Championship match was qualified automatically for the next cycle. This is not the case now and I find it unfair. In any case, I think I have a good chance to qualify by rating; actually that’s my only chance. I have to play very well in the upcoming tournaments, but I will try hard and I will be very happy to compete in the next World Championship. I feel that I am in good shape now, ready to fight for the World Championship again.

Can you keep your motivation to work hard on Chess after losing the title?

I never had a very concrete motivation. I had my goals, to become World Champion, to increase my rating and so on, but mainly I have always wanted to improve my chess. I have always enjoyed playing very good games and winning tournaments by means of convincing play. These are my permanent motivations, so I cannot say that now that I am not World Champion my motivation is going down. I think that the only thing that would decrease my motivation is when one day it will became clear that I am not as strong as before, but I hope that those times are still far away.

Will you play at the next Olympiad with the Russian team?

Yes, of course I am planning to play again for the Russian team, especially since the last time we could not win and the next Olympiad will be in Russia

The current young players

I have to say that surprisingly the players from my generation are still very strong, I am talking about players who entered top 10 at the same time with me (1990-1994): to quote some names Anand, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Topalov,Shirov. We have been able to hold our positions against the younger generations. It’s clear that one day they will overtake us, players such as Carlsen, Karjakin, Radjabov among others, but it does not seem to be the case so far.

The near future

My next serious tournament will be probably in November in Moscow. A few details still have to be completed but I think it will be done. Following that I will play in London in December and most probably in Corus (Wijk aan Zee) in January and Linares in February. The Tal Memorial in Moscow is going to be a very big event; they are planning to invite all the top ten players in the world.

On a longer term, I think I should be able to keep a strong level for the next 5-7 years, but I cannot guarantee anything at a longer term. I will carry on playing as long as I feel I am strong and competitive. When I don’t have that feeling anymore I shall retire.

So the best Kramnik is back ...

Well, I would also like to play right now, but I didn’t receive invitations for the most recent events, such as Leon, Mainz,Sofia, Bilbao and China. I could have played more if I had a chance, but I didn’t. Now I am ready to play; a few months ago it was more difficult, since my daughter was born and I felt I had to stop playing to help my wife.

Game selection [2005-2009]