In Memoriam

Friday, 22 May 2009 07:23

We mourn the passing of two great trainers, FIDE Senior Trainer & International Master Mikhail Podgaets at 62 years, on 14 May 2009, in Odessa, Ukraine, and Grandmaster Alexander Panchenko at 56 years in Kazan, Russia. Podgaets is best known as the trainer of World Champion Anatoly Karpov for 2 decades, assisted Alexander Beliavsky in his 1983 Candidates Match againbst Garry Kasparov, and who also helped the Ukrainian Olympic Woman team achieve a best ever silver medal in 1992. A great coach who was also a theoretician, he also worked with the likes of Ponomarev and Topalov. He was also a good player, especially in blitz, and his major achievement was winning the bronze medal at the USSR Championship in 1969. Panchenko, one of the all time greats, is the author of many important training manuals, the most well-known among too many to mention being the Theory and Practice of Endgames. He was the leader of a famous school and amongst his students were Alisa Galliamova, Women World Championship Finalist, and of course too many Grandmasters to mention. In 1979 he became Champion of Russia.