Top 40 Vladimir Kramnik Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Chess is like body-building. If you train every day, you stay in top shape. It is the same with your brain – chess is a matter of daily training.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

2. “Chess is so deep, I simply feel lost.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

3. “It is rightly said that the most difficult thing in chess is winning a won position.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

4. “On the whole, the life of a chess professional is not as easy as it appears at first sight. One needs to devote some ten hours a day to chess and to everything connected with it – physical and psycholgical preparation.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

5. “I go to bed at 4 a. m. Almost all chessplayers do.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

6. “I believe every chess player senses beauty, when he succeeds in creating situations, which contradict the expectations and the rules, and he succeeds in mastering this situation.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

7. “I don’t like to show my emotions at the board, not because they might give something away to an opponent, but because that’s my style: I like to keep it to myself.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

8. “I am convinced, the way one plays chess always reflects the player’s personality. If something defines his character, then it will also define his way of playing.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

9. “Chess is a matter of daily training.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

10. “Every month I look through some ten thousand games, so not as to miss any new ideas and trends.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

11. “Intellectual effort gives me enormous pleasure.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

12. “When I was a child I liked the games of Capablanca, and later I was captivated by Alekhine’s play.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

13. “With the Berlin I was able to set up a fortress that he could come near but not breach.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

14. “For us chess players the language of artist is something natural.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

15. “When I speak of the beauty of a game of chess, then naturally this is subjective. Beauty can be found in a very technical, mathematical game for example. That is the beauty of clarity.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

16. “Computers have changed the World of Chess.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

17. “No – I’m quite calm inside during the game for most of the time – not 100%, but generally very calm.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

18. “An impatient person plays differently than a more patient person.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

19. “For me art and chess are closely related, both are forms in which the self finds beauty and expression.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

20. “My very first book was a games collection of Anatoly Karpov. On the whole I was attracted by positonal play with some tactics, and already then I was aiming for universality.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

21. “Playing rapid chess, one can lose the habit of concentrating for several hours in serious chess. That is why, if a player has big aims, he should limit his rapidplay in favour of serious chess.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

22. “So basically it’s very simple: to start with, if you want to win the match, you shouldn’t be afraid of him. There are still many, many things to do, but above all this is the most important: Don’t be scared of him!”

— Vladimir Kramnik

23. “The Berlin Defence suited my strategy for the match. I had a defensive strategy – Actually, I had in my pocket some other sharper stuff to fall back on – but first I wanted to try the defensive strategy with Black and it worked so well.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

24. “In chess one cannot control everything. Sometimes a game takes an unexpected turn, in which beauty begins to emerge. Both players are always instrumental in this.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

25. “I made a better decision in choosing my team. Sure, I had a bigger choice of players to choose from – but I couldn’t have asked for a harder working group of players who did an incredible job.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

26. “At some point he seemed to lose all confidence trying to break down the Berlin Wall. He was still fighting as only Kasparov can, but I could see it in his eyes that he knew he wasn’t going to win one of these games.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

27. “Now, two years have passed and the situation is completely different: no one wants to organise this match.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

28. “Chess is an infinitely complex game, which one can play in infinitely numerous and varied ways.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

29. “Part of my preparation for the World Champion match against Kasparov was to be ready for his off-board tactics. I did not to react to them at all. Once you start thinking about these things during the game, even analysing them, you’re caught.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

30. “Every top player has his own style, just as every painter has his own personal signature.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

31. “I don’t know whether computers are improving the style of play, I know they are changing it. Chess has become a different game, one could say that computers have changed the world of chess. That is pretty clear.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

32. “Once he had selected the path he was going down he really had to stick with it in a 16 game match. He had to try and hit in the one direction but unfortunately for him – though fortunately for me! – he hit in the wrong direction.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

33. “Objectivity consists in understanding that the only one who never makes a mistake is the one who never does anything.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

34. “The development of beauty in chess never depends on you alone. No matter how much imagination and creativity you invest, you still do not create beauty. Your opponent must react at the same highest level.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

35. “In the current FIDE World Championship, on the knock-out system, weaker players have good chances. Those, who in a long match would practically have no chance, here may creep through.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

36. “It made a big difference to my match stamina. I couldn’t imagine I would have been so energetic during the match – it really gave me a welcomed extra boost!”

— Vladimir Kramnik

37. “Only he, who penetrates into the depth of the game, can express his personality in it.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

38. “But with the Berlin, I was able to allow him to get near, but not quite near enough, and I knew where to draw the line with the fortresses I had set up.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

39. “Even if you play perfectly, a fault of your opponent’s can destroy the entire beauty of the game.”

— Vladimir Kramnik

40. “Okay, when you start to fight for equality, like Anand did in 1995, you could end up losing game 10, like he did, without putting up any kind of fight.”

— Vladimir Kramnik