Person of day   -  26 OCTOBER 2023

YURY DOKHOIAN

YURY DOKHOIAN

Yury Dokhoian was born in the Altai Krai. His formative years as a chess player were spent in a famous chess boarding-school in Moscow and in classes of Tigran Petrosian’s school. After school, Dokhoian graduated from the chess faculty of the Moscow Institute of Physical Culture. By that time, first successes were in the pipeline Dokhoian won silver at the Soviet tournament of young masters and gold at an international tournament in Bucharest in 1986. 

Towards the end of the 1980s, Dokhoian became a grandmaster after victories at tournaments in Plovdiv and the B Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. He was successful at several other tournaments, but in the mid-1990s, Yury Dokhoian began to work with Garry Kasparov. After this, he stopped performing to concentrate on his role of trainer. 

Yury Dokhoian worked with Garry Kasparov for more than 10 years, and this decade was a successful period in the careers of both men. The 13th world champion broke record after record while his second became one of the most respected mentors in the chess world. After Garry Kasparov left chess, Yury Dokhoian began to train the Kosintsev sisters before leading Russia’s female team. After a while, he began to mentor Sergey Karjakin after the latter changed his Ukrainian citizenship to the Russian one.

As the head coach of the Russian women’s team, Yury Dokhoian achieved every success: the team won the 2010 Olympiad, winning every match. To add to this, Sergey Karjakin made rapid progress with his new trainer. However, Yury Dokhoian is known for his ambition and he continues to set himself and his pupils formidable tasks. At the 2011 European championship in Greece, the women’s team won another confident victory. They only drew one match and defeated all their rivals. 

After this, Yury Dokhoian was appointed head coach of the Russian men’s team in 2011. At the 2012 Olympiad in Istanbul, the team split 1st-2nd places with Armenia, but came second due to a worse tie-break. At the 2013 European team championship in Warsaw, Russia came third, before winning gold at the team world championship in Antalya. 

Since 2015, he worked with several grandmasters, including Sergey Karjakin, who won the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 candidates tournament. 

Yuri Dokhoian died on the 1st of July 2021 due to the COVID-19.