Who taught the legendary chess players?

Today I was thinking about one thing: who taught the legendary chess players? After all, someone had to teach them. Today we'll focus on Anatoly Karpov.It turns out he was taught by his father in early childhood, then by Alexei Pak in Zlatoust. His key coach, who nurtured him at Mikhail Botvinnik's school, was Semyon Furman, who helped shape his unique positional style and prepare him for the highest level. Coaches from the renowned Botvinnik School also worked with him.I'm interested in Semyon Furman.Semyon Furman a prominent theoretician who made significant contributions to the theory of a number of openings – the Grunfeld and Nimzowitsch Defenses, the Ruy Lopez, and the Queen's Gambit – he also proved himself to be a strong chess practitioner, often achieving success in various competitions. Semyon Abramovich Furman was the Leningrad champion and, as a young man, won 13 USSR championships. His most successful victory was the 1948 All-Union Championship, where he placed third. Seventeen years later, he came close to matching his performance in the 1965 national championship, but ultimately tied for fourth and fifth place with Paul Keres."Furman's games are monumental. He possesses a profound positional intuition...," wrote Konstantinopolsky. Romanovsky noted that Furman's play is characterized by energy in attack and composure in defense.These qualities helped him play successfully in international tournaments and compete for the USSR national team, in particular, at the 1961 European Championship.

Semyon Furman

Despite his practical achievements, Semyon Furman gained greatest recognition as an outstanding mentor. He coached the USSR national team at the 1974 World Chess Olympiad and the 1977 European Championship. In 1969, Furman began training *18-year-old Anatoly Karpov, who became the World Junior Champion that same year, and served as his mentor for 9 years, until his death.*Furman contributed greatly to the development of Karpov's chess talent and made an invaluable contribution to the outstanding success of the twelfth world champion. Karpov often recalled that his meeting with Furman was the most important event in his chess career. Semyon Furman died in March 1978 in Leningrad.

Semyon Furman in his youth