Success As Coach
Furman may have been the most successful coach in the history of chess, although some would give that title to Mark Dvoretsky. Chess culture has traditionally and typically credited the player for chess success, with the coach recognized in a much lesser fashion, or not at all. Chess coaches were not commonly seen for top players until the post-WWII period, when competition became much stiffer. They were first developed in the Soviet Union and in other Eastern European countries; it is no coincidence that top players from these nations have dominated chess for the past sixty years. Furman, with a very significant role in Karpov's development from his late teens, building upon earlier roles with World Champion Botvinnik and world-class players such as Bronstein, Korchnoi, and Geller, may have done more than any other coach, from the early 1950s until the late 1970s, to help ensure Soviet dominance.
Read more about this topic: Semyon Furman
Famous quotes containing the words success and/or coach:
“... the selfishness that is bred of great success is our shame. We have subdued the wilderness and made it ours. We have conquered the earth and the richness thereof. We have indelibly stamped upon its face the seal of our dominating will. Now, unlike Alexander sighing for more worlds to conquer, we should address ourselves to adding beauty to that glory and grandeur.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)
“Dr. Birdsell, my dramatic coach in school, always said that I was the most melancholy Dane that he had ever directed.”
—Donald Freed, U.S. screenwriter, and Arnold M. Stone. Robert Altman. Richard Nixon (Philip Baker Hall)