Michael Khodarkovsky

About Michael Khodarkovsky

An internationally ranked chess master,  Michael Khodarkovsky was born in Odessa, Ukraine, on July 21, 1958, and now resides in New Jersey.

Michael was a well known trainer of chess champions in the former Soviet Union prior to immigrating to the United States in 1992.

He served as coach for grandmasters G. Zaitchik (2002 US Open Champion), V. Eingorn, and many others.

From 1982 to 1992, he was a coach at the Special Olympic Chess School in Odessa.

In 1985, he became the coach for the Ukrainian National Chess Team for the prestigious USSR Cup. In 1988, he was the coach for the winning Ukrainian Junior Team at the Grand Prix of Czechoslovakia in Prague. From 1990 to 1991, he was the chess consultant for chess clubs in Belgrade and Prague.

Michael was also a popular chess columnist and he had his own columns in daily newspapers. He was named the best chess journalist in 1985-1986. Michael is the founder and executive director of International Chess School.

He is a close friend and adviser of former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov.  During the 1995 World Championship Match in NY City, Michael was in charge of the team of seconds for Garry. He was a member of Kasparov’s team in the 1996 and 1997 Kasparov – Deep Blue celebrated exhibition matches.

Between 1999 and 2000, Michael served as the Chief Educational Content Officer at Kasparov Chess Online to run special projects for World School Chess Championship online.   Michael also worked with Garry in the World Championship match in 2000.

In 2002, he became one of the founders and currently serves as President of the Kasparov Chess Foundation, an American nonprofit organization that promotes chess in the schools and special programs for gifted children in chess.

His teams and students have won numerous state and national championships. In January 2003, Michael once again worked with Garry in the historic Man vs. Machine World Championship.

Michael is the author of the book “A New Era: How Garry Kasparov Changed the World of Chess” and the book “Gruenfeld Defense Revealed”.

Michael’s experience in coaching and knowledge in top-level chess makes him a very valuable asset for this the 2004 US Women’s Olympic Team working as a Team Training Consultant and Head Coach.

Michael has been instrumental in the development of chess curriculum throughout the Kasparov Chess Foundation.

Since 2004 Michael Khodarkovsky has served as a U.S. Coach and on occassion as head of the delegation for the World Youth Championships.  This year Michael will also coach the U.S. Team at the Pan-American Youth Festival in Argentina and the World Youth Championships in Vietnam.

Michael Khodarkovsky fully deserves this recognition and we congratulate him for this award which will add to his many accomplishments.

Congratulations Michael !