Miron Sher

Miron Naumovich Sher (Russian: ; June 29, 1952 – August 20, 2020) was a Soviet-born American chess player, who was awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM) by FIDE in 1992. Towards the end of the Soviet era, he began winning the open sections at international tournaments. In 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved, Sher became a Russian citizen. In 1997, Sher, his wife, Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Alla Grinfeld (ru), and their son, Mikhail, who then was 14, emigrated to America and settled in Brooklyn. Sher went on to become a distinguished scholastic chess coach and clinician in New York and was instrumental in developing several internationally strong players, notably Fabiano Caruana, many times number two in the world, and Robert Hess, who at age , while attending Stuyvesant High School, became an international master and at , a grandmaster. Before immigrating, Sher had also coached a number of students around Europe, including Peter Heine Nielsen.

Career

Sher was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and completed his bachelor's degree at Chernivtsi University. He went on to grad school at the State Central Order of Lenin Institute of Physical Education in Moscow; and, in 1975, in addition to his academics, Sher met the norms and was awarded the national title and rank Master of Sports of the USSR in Chess (ru) – one of twenty-five nationwide to earn the distinction that year (not to be confused with an academic master's degree in sports).