Chess Grandmaster (since 1990), Senior Trainer FIDE (since 2012)

Yuriy Yakovich (born in 1962) has been the Head Coach of the Russian National Womens Team from 2000 till 2006. During this period, the team has been a winner and a runner-up of four chess Olympiads and two European championships. Another highlight in his team coaching experience was the shared 4^th place in the 41^st and 43^rd Chess Olympiads with the Kazakhstan National Woman Team.

Yuriy has more than 20 years of experience in coaching junior chess prodigies. His students Sanan Siugirov, Ivan Bukavshin, Alexander Predke (all Russia), Samuel Sevian, Jeffery Xiong (both USA), and Dinara Saduakassova (Kazakhstan) have been winners and runners-up of various Junior World European and Asian Championships. All of them became chess Grandmasters at the age of 14-16 years and have won a large number of prestigious international tournaments.

Yuriy has repeatedly held training camps with promising chess players in the United States and Europe. In 2019 he worked with a number of Dutch prodigies, including Jorden Van Foreest and Eline Roebers. He also regularly conducts group and individual classes online with both Grandmasters and juniors.

To implement his coaching ideas, he opened a Grandmaster chess school in Russia in 2005. It has become one of the most successful coaching centres for junior chess players in Russia. The students of his school won over 300 medals in various tournaments around the world. They successfully compete in the World, European, and National Junior championships. They have subsequently also participated in the Senior World Championships, World Cups, the finals of the Russian Championships, and have won many prestigious international tournaments. In 2020-2021 he was nominated for the FIDE Best Trainer Award for the accomplishments and success of his chess Academy in Russia where eight of his students became Grandmasters.

Yuriy is also a brilliant coach of coaches. His didactic know-how has proved to be so successful that he is regularly invited by the Russian Chess Federation to give lectures to professional coaches. Over the years Yuriy has developed unique teaching methods and written books which help in conducting his classes.

At this very moment Yuriy is working as a Head Coach of the German National Women’s chess team.

At the 23^rd European Women's Team Championship (Slovenia, 2021) the German team won the fifth prize (the best in the history of women’s chess in Germany), and at the 44^th World Chess Olympiad (India, 2022) it finished in the top ten.

Achievement as a chess player.

In 1997 Yuriy was in the top 50 of the rating list FIDE with ELO 2610.

As a player Yuriy had an extremely successful career being a prize winner in more than 20 prestigious international tournaments around the world. To mention just a few:

Team Tournaments:

• As a member of the Russian National Team - European Team Championship 1997, 2^nd place
• As a member of Ladya Chess Club (Azov, Russia) – Winner of European Club Cup 1997 and Russian Club Championship, 1997
• As a member of Sollentuna Chess Club (Sweden) – Winner of Sweden Club Championship 2000
• As a member of the Russian National Team – Winner of European Team Championship (Senior 50+) 2019

Individual Tournaments:

• Russia Young Masters Championship, 1983 – 1^st place
• Santa Clara, Cuba, 1990 – 1^st place
• Jamshedpur, India, 1990 – 1^st place
• BelaCrkva, Yugoslavia, 1990 – 1^st place
• Leeuwarden (the Netherlands), 1994 – 1^st place
• Hastings (Great Britain), 1994/95 – tied for the 1^st place
• 26thRilton Cup (Stockholm) 1996/97 – tied for the ^st place
• Russian Championiship,1997 г – quarter-finalist
• RussianCup, Tomsk, 1997 – 1^st place
• Petrov Memorial, Saint Peterburg, Russia, 1998 – tied for the 1^st place
• Golden Cleopatra, Cairo, Egypt, 1999 – 1^st place
• Villa Real de San Antonio, Portugal, 1999, 2000 and 2001 – 1^st place
• 30thRilton Cup, Stockholm, Sweden, 2000/01 – 1^st place
• Excelsior Cup, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2000 and 2002 – 1^st place
• Hasselbacken Cup, Stockholm, Sweden, 2001 – 1^st place
• Stockholm, Sweden, 2002 – 1^st place
• Noyabrsk, Russia, 2003 – 1^st place
• Salekhard, Russia, 2006 – tied for the 1^st place
• 16th Monarch Assurance, Port Erin, Isle of Man – 1^st place
• Botvinnik Memorial, Saint Peterburg, Russia, 2011 – tied for the 1^st place

Next to that, Yuriy Yakovich is the author of numerous books such as:

• ‘Play the 4 f3 Nimzo-Indian’, published by Gambit Publications in 2004;
• ‘Sicilian Attacks’, published by ‘New In Chess’ in 2010;
• ‘The complete Sveshnikov Sicilian’, published by Gambit Publications Ltd. in 2002.