Kramnik killing it with 1.e4?

Lately Vlad has been performing at the highest level he has in probably years, looks like the clear #2 player in the world over the past couple months.  And he's been crushing it with 1.e4!  Anyone know why he ever gave up the move?  I know he was a huge e4 player in his youth but I didn't expect to ever see him playing Bg5 Najdorfs again(Today vs Gelfand), AS WHITE!  It seems during the Olympiad he decided, "Screw it, I'm going back to 1.e4" and he's been playing it for a couple weeks now.  

Just an observation.  

Would love to see titled players comment on it. Go Vlad :)

Nope, against the few recent 1...e5 tries he's went into the d3 lines of the Italian that have been trendy lately, with good results too.  In fact, he beat Vishy on the white side of the Italian just a couple days ago.  

His spanish opening has been great lately

Kramnik was White.  

Kramnik hasn't played the Spanish as White lately.  

Ye olde Vlad is still in good shape

It's fun to see a pro play lines they hardly ever play. It might be easy to forget their knoweldge is more or less comprehensive. How does the phrase go... they've forgotten more about chess than we'll ever learn

I forgot it's the italian, but I remember a commentary where someone said it resembled the spanish because his bishop made the maneuver to b3 then c2 against anand.

The rage!  Is pfren hungover today?  

I think that nowadays Kramnik plays a little more sharp...and goes for the gusto a little more often. Thus his games are sometimes more entertaining. Sometimes he loses more often too, though.