Tragic news from Moscow.

One of the best coaches in the world, Grandmaster Yuri Dokhoian, has passed away. He was only 56.

The news is shocking – Yuri was strong, healthy, focused, smart and hard-edged.

We used to talk a lot at tournaments, mostly about chess, but we also discussed all sorts of things. Yuri had a great sense of humour; he loved playing soccer and was pretty good at it – took to the field against guys half his age.

A very decent Grandmaster himself, with a rating of over 2,600, Yuri relatively early switched to coaching and was Kasparov's head coach in the late 1990s and 2000s.

After the 13th World Champion retired from chess, Dokhoian faced new challenges time and again: he served as captain of the Russian women's national team and was the personal coach of the Kosintseva sisters, then took charge of the Russia Olympic Team. He was an excellent analyst and, most importantly, had superb chess intuition. When analyzing, Dokhoian was on par with the top players. He helped most of Russia's leading chess players, and last year he took Andrei Esipenko under his wing... Yuri had big plans, but illness spares no one these days.

We offer our deepest condolences to Yuri's family and friends. Very sad indeed.

Emil Sutovsky, FIDE Director General

I met Yuri in 2000 when I joined Garry Kasparov’s team before his world championship match with Vladimir Kramnik. Yuri was a rather private person on the surface, but that was a shell: when we got closer, he revealed a completely different side of himself - he was kind, fair, and frank. He had various interests beyond the world of chess. Yura abandoned the career of chess player early on but fulfilled his potential as a coach, becoming an incontestable authority among his colleagues.

Under Dokhoian’s guidance, Kasparov got his second wind – he set a record by winning several super-tournaments in a row, reaching a new level despite fierce competition from younger generations. This was not surprising because Yuri and Garry had an important quality, which is absolutely necessary if one aspires to climb to the very top - an uncompromising attitude towards searching for truth. He was an unfailing friend who would never let you down. This is a great loss to the chess world.

Mikhail Kobalia, Chairman of Trainers Commission