Moscow ? Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik on Friday became the first universally recognized world chess champion since 1993, winning a series of timed tiebreaking games over Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov to take a tournament that reunified the title.

Kramnik secured his victory over Topalov in a fourth tiebreaker of the turbulent three-week tournament that was fraught with protests and appeals by both sides.

His team erupted in joyful shouting after Kramnik’s win gave him an edge of 8 1/2 to 7 1/2 points, and he rose to his feet and clutched his hands over his head before shaking hands with Topalov.

Kramnik and Topalov, both 31, each will receive $500,000 for taking part in the tournament, 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.