Brooklyn Instructor National Master Alisher Podavonov was born and raised in Brooklyn, where he currently runs some of our middle and high school programs. He has played in over 500 tournament games and has played a lot of blindfold games like our 105th podcast guest Timur Garayev. He prioritizes understanding the position and give optional assignments to improve tactical and strategic play.
Some his playing career highlights include winning clear second place in the 2016 New York City High School Championship, tying for second place in the 2015 New York State High School Championship, winning first place in the 2014 Mayor's Cup JHS-HS Championship and winning first place in the 2013 Jerry Simon Memorial.
When not playing, studying or teaching chess, Alisher works as a freelance full-stack software engineer.