Josif (Josef, Iossif, Iosif) Davidovich Dorfman (born 1 May 1952, Zhitomir) is a Soviet-French chess Grandmaster, coach, and chess writer.
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Dorfman played in several USSR championships. In 1975, he took 13th in Yerevan (43rd URS-ch; Tigran Petrosian won). In 1976, he tied for 5-7th in Moscow (44th URS-ch; Anatoly Karpov won). One of his most emphatic victories occurred in qualification for this championship, at the 1976 First League tournament, where he finished 1½ points clear of the field (+6, =11). In 1977, he was joint USSR Champion with Boris Gulko (both +4, =11, ahead of Petrosian, Polugaevsky and Tal). The subsequent play-off match was drawn (+1 –1 =4). In 1978, he took 17th in Tbilisi (46th URS-ch; Tal and Tseshkovsky won). In 1981, he tied for 8-9th in Frunze (49th URS-ch; Lev Psakhis and Garry Kasparov won). In 1984, he took 12th in Lvov (51st URS-ch; Andrei Sokolov won).
After finishing Soviet Champion in 1977, both he and Gulko posted very disappointing results; normally the reigning champion would finish in the top half of the table. It is known however, that both players were subjected to a wave of anti-semitism that existed at the time. Although the extent of this treatment remains a matter of speculation, it is perhaps not entirely coincidental that they subsequently moved abroad and adopted new nationalities.
In tournaments he tied for 2nd-4th at Pécs 1976, took 2nd at São Paulo 1978, tied for 2nd-4th at Polanica Zdrój 1978, 1st-3rd at Djakarta 1979, 3rd-5th at Manila 1979. He won at Zamardi 1980. He was a winner at Warsaw 1983 (+6, =8), was 1st= at Lvov 1984, 1st at Moscow 1985, and 5th= at Minsk 1986.
In 1998, Dorfman won the French Chess Championship in Méribel (73rd FRA-ch).[1] Two years later, he was runner-up to his former student, Bacrot.
He played for France in three Chess Olympiads.
Dorfman was awarded the IM title in 1977 and the GM title in 1978.
He acted as one of Garry Kasparov's seconds in his first four World Championship matches against Anatoly Karpov. Later Dorfman moved to France. He coached the French player Étienne Bacrot from age nine to Grandmaster level, when he became France's and the world's youngest ever.
In 2004 Dorfman was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer.