Mark D. Tseitlin is a Russian-Israeli chess Grandmaster and an awarded FIDE trainer. He was born on February 23, 1943, in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). Tseitlin became an International Master in 1981, a Grandmaster in 1997, and received his FIDE Trainer certificate in 2005.
Tseitlin won several tournaments throughout his career, including the 1992 Israeli Championship, one of the most recognized accomplishments in his chess career. Other wins include second place at the 1989 West Berlin Open, and third place at the 1993 Copenhagen Open.
In addition to his successful chess career, Tseitlin had a stellar career as a chess coach. He served as the trainer for the Israeli national chess teams during many Chess Olympiads, as well as the trainer for Grandmaster Ronen Har-Zvi.
Tseitlin is the author of several chess books, including "Improving the Chess Opening Repertoire" (co-authored with Eduard Gufeld) and "The Sicilian Defence" (co-authored with Yuri Razuvayev).
In his teaching career, his students included chess GMs such as Ilya Smirin, Leonid Yudasin, Evgeny Gleizerov, Michael Roiz, Ilya Khmelniker, Alex Huzman, and Judith Polgar. Despite his retirement, he is still an active participant in chess events, playing for the veteran team in the Israeli team championships.