I was born in Odessa, Ukraine, home to a fair share of chess grandmasters. There, I started attending chess classes at the age of 9, and I was hooked. Chess opened up a whole new world for me. My favourite metaphor, which I believe to be true, is that chess is a model of life. At the board, you can be creative, daring, and even whimsical.Off the board, chess was a vehicle for me to escape the Soviet reality. While international travel was restricted to most people, chess allowed me to see the world, meet many interesting people and overcome obstacles.My chess career was on the rise, and in 1978 I became and International Chess Grandmaster (back when there were only a bit over 100 of us). From that point on, I have won over a dozen class A tournaments, traveled all over the world, until I finally decided to become a coach.Back in Ukraine, I have earned the title of Emeritus coach of Ukraine, trained numerous famous grandmasters and coached both world and Olympic teams.In 1994, my family and I moved to the United States. Ever since, I have been training players of all levels (from grandmasters to scholastic players). I have also written several best selling chess books. Now, I am also one of the official USCF coaches for the US Youth players at the Scholastic World Championships, and have also been a coach to the US Olympic Chess Team.Currently, I reside in Bethesda, MD, very close to Washington, DC and Baltimore areas. Here, I work as an associate director for University of Maryland’s at Baltimore County (UMBC) chess team, the strongest collegiate team in the United States, comprised of 4 grandmasters per academic year. I also represent Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) as the Greater Mid Atlantic region coordinator. In this capacity, we organize the Greater Mid-Atlantic Scholastic Championships, and hope to conduct more events in the future.In my spare time, I give private lessons at my residence, conduct chess camps for scholastic players, and continue to write books