Apart from the Bulgarian Federation, the whole chess world is congratulating itself because, after 13 long years, we have a new, undisputed world champion: The Russian Vladimir Kramnik. And the coronation was the result of one of the most thrilling and interesting championships of all time.

Before this tournament, Kramnik, former PCA Champion, had a title which very few esteemed. He was not playing often; and when he was, he was not playing as well as a world champion should, losing against theoretically weaker players.

Kramnik’s last defense of the title was two years ago against the Hungarian Peter Leko. The Russian managed to keep the title, but the effort exhausted him. His health deteriorated and he was not up to playing top class chess again until recently.

This year everything changed. He was the most valuable player in the Olympics and won in Dortmund in convincing fashion. Finally, it was time to duel against FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov.

Topalov was uninterested in unification when first approached. He did not need to. His title was considered superior to Kramnik’s and his ELO level was much higher than that of the Russian. Then sponsors caddied in bags of money for the unification championship and Topalov reconsidered. He was the favorite of the public and of the critics–almost nobody thought Kramnik could defeat him.

When the toilet scandal took place (Topalov accused Kramnik of making too many visits to the rest room, and perhaps cheating, which resulted in a point forfeited to Topalov), Topalov was panicked: he was losing and the Cinderella Kramnik was playing skillfully. After Topalov’s behavior, anyone in Kramnik’s position would have stopped playing, but the Russian did not.

Why? He knew it was now or never. If he lost, he would never get a second chance. But if he won, even after forfeiting a point to the Bulgarian in the fifth game, he would enter the annals of chess glory, which he did.

After 12 games, both players had 6 points. In the tiebreakers, the two players had to play under rapid chess time conditions. Today we present the fourth of these tiebreakers–the game that gave the crown to Kramnik and made him the 17th undisputed world chess champion in history.