The Best of the Best
by Zdenko Krnic

Vladimir Kramnik achieved one of the best performances of his career at the Turin Olympiad, where he scored the top first board result. The game he won against Bruzon, played in a combinatory style, was selected as the best game of Informant 97, ahead of the game Rublevsky – Mamedyarov by a margin of three points.

We will soon be releasing a new CD, The Best of Chess Informant – Vladimir Kramnik, and, as an introduction to Kramnik’s creative output, I would like to present my foreword from the CD.

"A while ago, back then in 1989, the editorial work on Chess Informant 47 was in full swing. As many times before, a large shipment from Moscow had just arrived with contributions from Soviet players. Among the heaps of material, a notebook with many annotated games caught the eye of our Editorial Board. The games were neatly handwritten, which obviously took a lot of time and patience. Fourteen-year-old elementary school pupil who wrote that was none other than today's World Champion; we could hardly imagine at the time that the future would bring regular worldwide e-mailing service.

As one of the most talented juniors he was awarded an early admittance into the famous Botvinnik's school for gifted young players. Mikhail Moiseevich insisted upon absolute commitment to the analytical work, based on his firm belief that one can benefit most from thorough understanding of his own games. Apart from his extraordinary gift, probably most of Kramnik's fundamentals stem from this school.

Many wrote about Kramnik's play. His greatest strength lies in subtle positional outmaneuvering of the opponent and subsequent conversion of the advantage in the ending. His harmonious piece coordination is astounding, and his mental stability guarantees his best performance in decisive games.

I first met Vladimir Kramnik at the Dortmund tournament in 1992. With his brilliant performance in the Open tournament and subsequent meteoric rise, he announced his entrance into the elite of world chess. A few months later he won his gold medal as first reserve for the Russian team in the Manila Olympiad. Later that year he became a Grandmaster, which was a mere formality, as he was obviously destined for greatness. Nowadays, Dortmund is one of his favorite venues, as he managed to conquer it seven times so far.

For Chess Informant's 35th anniversary, Kramnik wrote: "Chess Informant has had great importance and influence to the development of world chess. As for me, I have always been cooperating with Chess Informant and eagerly expecting appearance of every new volume." In a month or so the work on Informant 99 shall enter the final phase. To my great satisfaction, Vladimir's annotated games from Wijk aan Zee and Monaco have already arrived. It is my sincere hope that this CD, which covers his creative opus, will contribute to the development of many young generations to come."

CLOSE-UP
Foreword
Bio & Facts
Tournaments

GAMES
843 published games, 391 annotated by Kramnik
White/Black repertoire trees
Stats

CREATIVITY
Best games
5 golden games
100 best games
Chess Informant Jury
Most important theoretical novelties
Novelties
Chess Informant Jury
Theoretical surveys (C 42, D 85, E 04)

PLAY LIKE KRAMNIK
Combinations
Excellent moves
Attack
Storming initiative
Defense
Endings
Rare Blunders & Misconceptions

In 4 different formats (Chess Informant Expert, PGN, ChessBase and Chess Assistant)

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