Yona Kosashvili

Yona Kosashvili
Full name	Yona Kosashvili
Country	Israel
Born	(1970-07-03) July 3, 1970 Tbilisi, Georgian SSR
Title	Grandmaster, orthopedic surgeon,
FIDE rating	2531 (April 2024)
Peak rating	2665 (February 1995)

Dr Yona Kosashvili (born July 3, 1970) is an Israeli chess Grandmaster and surgeon. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, he moved to Israel as a child. Kosashvili is one of the few people in the world to have earned both of the titles MD and GM. He is an orthopedic surgeon, specializing in a variety of procedures including arthroscopy and total joint replacement. Dr Kosashvili is actively involved in academics through his role as Clinical Instructor of Orthopedic Surgery at Tel Aviv University.

Although he never played chess professionally, he holds the title of International Chess Grandmaster. In 1995 he was ranked 34th in the world. In 1999 he married International Master Sofia Polgar, and they have two children, Alon and Yoav. Other famous chess players in the family include the former female world champion Susan Polgar and Judit Polgar, who is generally considered the strongest female chess player ever.

Dr Kosashvili also published scientific articles, on orthopedic subjects, that are on the web. He works in the Orthopedic Department of Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva, Israel, as an orthopedic surgeon.

Chess coaching and management

In addition to actively competing, Yona was the Israeli junior team captain and trainer in 1993. One of his students won the Under 14 World Junior Championship in 1992, while another student won second place in the Under 12 World Junior Championship.

Before beginning his army service, he published a book for chess trainers that was adopted by the Israeli Chess Federation as its official trainers guide. In 1995, he was the managing director of the European Junior Chess Championship and International Chess Festival.

External links

• Biography at Sofia Polgar's official site
• Yona Kosashvili rating card at FIDE
• The chess games of Yona Kosashvili at chessgames.com

• Sources citing Polgár as by far the strongest female chess player of all time:

• note: The Associated Press story on Aug.17/18, 2003 on the Polgár–Anand match explicitly refers to Polgár with the words "by far the strongest woman chess player ever"
• note: explicitly uses "by far": "By far the strongest female player of all time".
• Malcolm Pein, British IM and Executive Editor of CHESS magazine, when speaking of A. Kosteniuk's victory over Hou Yifan for the Women's World Champtionship, said "Currently Judit Polgár is in another league from any other female player."
• Kavalek, GM in the top 100 players for 26 years, called Polgár, "the all-time best female player"
• Panolfini, chess author and coach, writes "Judit Polgár is simply the strongest female chess player in history."
• The January 1996 FIDE ratings list was a landmark as Polgár's 2675 rating made her the No. 10 ranked player in the world, the only woman ever to enter the world's Top Ten.