BRISSAGO, Switzerland, 19 October 2004 — Defending classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia retained his title yesterday by drawing with Hungary’s Peter Leko in the Classical World Chess Championship.
Twenty-nine year-old Kramnik, nicknamed “Mr Iceberg”, won the fourteenth and final game in the southern Swiss lakeside town of Brissago to narrowly draw the classical championship against Leko — known as “Marathon Man” — by seven points to seven.
Kramnik first seized the classical title four years ago from fellow Russian Garry Kasparov and may face off against his former nemesis to decide who will be the one and only world No. 1 in chess. The match in Brissago, which has been recognized by the rival World Chess Federation FIDE, was billed as the first move toward reconciliation following an 11-year row that has torn the chess world apart.
The classical championship was formed by the Association of Chess Professionals which broke away from FIDE in 1993 in a schism similar to the one that dogged the boxing world for many years.
