Gold Medalist Coach on Special Traits of Great Players

GM Ivan Sokolov's accomplishments as a player include reaching the 2700 "super grandmaster" club and a peak world ranking in the top 15. With all that, his coaching accomplishments may be even more impressive. His students have included GMs Alireza Firouzja and Parham Maghsoodloo, Ivan Saric, Jorden van Foreest and Salem AR Saleh. He is also a standout team coach, captaining the gold medal-winning 2022 Olympiad squad from Uzbekistan and more recently guiding his teams to first and fifth place in the 2025 European Team Championships.

For all his achievements, Ivan is the Chess.com Coach of the Month for November 2025. You can find several of his insights into coaching below, including what attributes separate the very best young players that he has worked with, like Firouzja or GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, from other grandmasters and strong players.

 
At what age were you introduced to chess, and who introduced you?

When I was six years old, my father Cenko introduced me. He was a reasonably strong club player—in today's terms, perhaps 2000 FIDE.

Which coaches were helpful to you in your chess career, and what was the most useful knowledge they imparted to you?

Legendary attacker GM Dragoljub Velimirovic was the most helpful. In a very short time, a year or so, he drastically improved my overall chess knowledge, my attacking skills, and my feel for the initiative and 'dynamic minor sacrifices'.