Semyon Abramovich Furman (December 1, 1920 – March 17, 1978) was a Soviet chess player and trainer of Belarusian Jewish origin.

His chess development was on hold during the next few years of World War II, as Leningrad was placed under siege by the Nazis, beginning in 1941.

In an All-Union Tournament of First Category players at Gorky 1945, Furman posted his first noteworthy result when he tied for first with Konstantin Klaman, at 11/15.

In the USSR Championship semi-final (URS-ch15 sf), Leningrad 1946, Furman was unsuccessful in advancing, but made a highly respectable score of 9/18, to tie for 9th-10th places.

He tied for first place in the All-Union Championship of the Spartak Club, with Vladimir Simagin, at 15/19, but lost the playoff match.

In the final, he performed exceptionally well, placing third, only half a point behind joint winners David Bronstein and Alexander Kotov, with a fine score of 11/18 (URS-ch16, Moscow 1948).

Furman gradually proved he belonged in the upper echelon of the extraordinarily deep Soviet chess elite, with many victories over top players.

It was difficult in those years for all but the very top Soviet players to travel abroad to international tournaments, where titles could be earned, and Furman had few opportunities.

Bronstein wrote, in his acclaimed book The Sorcerer's Apprentice (page 102): "Later, when I recognised the logical play of Furman, I invited him to be my assistant during preparation for the match [against World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik] in 1951.

That is certain Grandmaster level, but, because of lack of international opportunities, Furman did not formally receive the title until eighteen years later.

It was in a training role that Furman first met the young Anatoly Karpov, who at age seventeen was representing the Army Sports club on the junior board at the 1968 Soviet Team Championships, held in Riga.

This win earned Karpov the Soviet berth in the 1969 World Junior Chess Championship, held in Stockholm.

Furman may have been the most successful coach in the history of chess, although some would give that title to Mark Dvoretsky[citation needed].

Chess coaches were not commonly seen for top players until the post-World War II period, when competition became much stiffer.

They were first developed in the Soviet Union and in other Eastern European countries; it is no coincidence that top players from these nations have dominated chess for the past sixty years.

Furman was an exceptional openings specialist, and was respected as being of virtually world-class strength with the White pieces, with which he scored most of his wins over the top players, as the game selection shows.

While best remembered today as Karpov's trainer, Furman also made many important contributions to the success of other top players, such as Bronstein, Botvinnik, Korchnoi, and Geller.

He favoured the closed openings (1.d4, 1.c4, 1.Nf3) as White, and in many of his wins over top-class rivals, his opponents were simply unable to generate counterplay, and were slowly strangled by Furman's precise, yet amorphous strategy.