Vladimir Kramnik of Russia won a long anticipated unification match against Bulgaria's Vesselin Topalov in a tiebreaker Friday, becoming the first universally recognised world chess champion since 1993.

Kramnik won the tension-filled match in the southern Russian republic of Kalmykia by a score of 8.5-7.5 in a final day of quick, time-limited games.

Each of the players, both 31, was to receive $500 000 for taking part in the match, which was arranged to heal a 13-year-old schism in the chess world dating back to World Champion Garry Kasparov's withdrawal from the World Chess Federation.

The tiebreaker consisted of four rapid, 25-minute games.

The first game was drawn by mutual agreement after 47 moves.

The second rapid game ended in favour of the Russian. He got a small opening advantage in the Anti-Meran variation of the Slav. After the queens were exchanged, Topalov made an overambitious pawn push, which enhanced Kramnik's advantage. Kramnik showed brilliant technique to push home his advantage.

The third game ended in Topalov's favour. He managed to obtain a complicated and unbalanced position and broke though the centre, sacrificing two pawns on the 33rd and 35th moves in process. Kramnik had to give up a queen in order to survive under his opponent's direct attack and resigned on move 50.

Kramnik played the Slav defense in the fourth game. The Russian was flawless during the technical stage, while Topalov committed a huge mistake on move 44. He resigned almost immediately after seeing the opponent's reply, handing Kramnik a 2.5-1.5 victory for the rapid game series.

Topalov said that he was not sure if he will be invited to participate in the next World Championship, which is scheduled to start on September 12 2007 in Mexico City. But he vowed to challenge Kramnik again.

"Bulgaria's chess grand master Vesselin Topalov will try to win the World Chess Championship Title in a new match versus Kramnik", Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov said at a press conference at Grand Sofia Hotel, according to reports from Focus News Agency.

"The regulations of the World Chess Federation allows each world champion who has lost the title to extend an invitation for a new match. The sum of 1.5 million euro has to be provided as an award. We will find the money and will demand that the match take place in Sofia. We will even propose the date March 3 2007", Danailov said.

Danailov suspects Kramnik will not accept the offer, which could force FIDE to strip him of the world's only chess king title. Topalov and Kramnik inspired reminiscences of Kasparov and Karpov, who first started the schism in the chess world back in 1993, Danailov said.