Career
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, he moved to Israel as a child. Kosashvili is one of the few people in the world to have earned both of the titles Doctor of Medicine and General Motors. He is an orthopedic surgeon, specializing in a variety of procedures including arthroscopy and total joint replacement. Doctor Kosashvili is actively involved in academics through his role as Clinical Instructor of Orthopedic Surgery at Tel Aviv University.
Although he never played chess professionally, he holds the title of International Chess Grandmaster.
In 1995 he was ranked 34th in the world. Doctor Kosashvili also published scientific articles, on orthopedic subjects, that are on the web.
He works in the Orthopedic Department of Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva, Israel, as an orthopedic surgeon. In addition to actively competing, Yona was the Israeli junior team captain and trainer in 1993.
Before beginning his army service, he published a book for chess trainers that was adopted by the Israeli Chess Federation as its official trainers guide.
In 1995, he was the managing director of the European Junior Chess Championship and International Chess Festival.