Alon Greenfeld is an Israeli American chess grandmaster. He was born on April 17, 1964 in New York City, United States. His family moved from New York to Israel when he was a toddler, and he grew up playing chess in that country.
Greenfeld got his early chess training from the renowned Mark Dworetsky in Moscow. In his teen years, he was already playing successfully in international chess tournaments. Aged 18 years, he won the World Junior Championship held in Copenhagen in 1982.
He was awarded the FIDE International Master (IM) title in 1983. He later earned the Grandmaster (GM) title in December 1989 from the World Chess Federation. This makes him only the third Israeli to ever achieve the grandmaster status.
In the 1990s, he mainly focused on participating in team chess events. He took part in several Chess Olympiads for Israel. He has also played for the English chess club, Wood Green.
Greenfeld is presently a chess trainer. He was the coach of the Israeli national teams from 1998 to 2010, which witnessed good results under his training. He also worked as a second to Garry Kasparov, who was the world champion at that time.
Greenfeld is also known for his contributions to chess literature. He authored the book "The Botvinnik Semi-Slav" in 2000.
He moved back to the United States in 2008 and has been living in Tucson, Arizona. He teaches chess lessons online and also works as a commentator for international chess tournaments.