Vladimir Kramnik Retires At 43

I guess this explains his kamikaze performance at Wijk aan Zee, though why he preferred to go out showing insane chess rather than making an all-out effort to remind the world of his best chess is hard to understand. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

Anyway, it's sad news to see Vladimir Kramnik, who has been in the top 10 (often in the top 5, and for serious stretches in the top 3) for almost all of the past 25 years hang it up at the relatively early age of 43. There are athletes who still play professional sports at that age (not many, but still), and while Garry Kasparov threw in the towel at the age of 41 it's rare for a chess player to give up so early. Viswanathan Anand was still the world champion at that age, and Anatoly Karpov also held one of the world titles when he was 43 (and just a few months before he turned 43 he had one of the greatest results of all time when he destroyed the field in Linares in 1994).

Kramnik was the world champion from 2000 to 2006, defeating Kasparov to win the title. In addition to his colossal achievements as a player, he has been the leading influence on opening theory over the past quarter of a century. With White, he was among the movers and shakers of the 4.Qc2 Nimzo-Indian. Against the King's Indian, his use of the Petrosian Variation and then especially the Bayonet Attack gave King's Indian players headaches for years, and helped chase Kasparov away from that defense. His advocacy of the Catalan also produced much suffering for Black for years, while with the black pieces he not only put the Berlin Defense on the map, he made everything else on the 1.e4 map look like a tiny island, at least for a while.

Kramnik had made jokes about being a "pensioner" for a few years, and had threatened to retire at age 40. I'm glad he stuck around a while longer (though I would have been okay with his retiring before his dreadful performance in Wijk aan Zee), and hope he gets his motivation back soon. (He probably won't, but I can hope.)

More about the decision here, and if someone else doesn't do it first I might try to cobble together a "best of" post at some point.