 Seirawan at the 2003 United States Chess Championship | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1960-03-24)March 24, 1960 (age 65) Damascus, Syria |
| Chess career | |
| Country | United States |
| Title | Grandmaster (1980) |
| FIDE rating | 2620 (November 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2658 (November 2011) |
| Peak ranking | No. 10 (July 1990) |
Yasser Seirawan (Arabic:ياسر سيروان; born March 24, 1960) is an Americanchess grandmaster and four-timeUnited States champion. He won theWorld Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author and commentator.
Seirawan was born inDamascus, Syria. His father was Syrian and his mother an English nurse fromNottingham, where he spent some time in his early childhood. When he was seven, his family immigrated toSeattle, Washington, where he attended Queen Anne Elementary School,Meany Middle School, andGarfield High School. He honed his game at a now-defunct coffeehouse, theLast Exit on Brooklyn,[1] playing against the likes ofLatvian-born masterViktors Pupols and six-timeWashington State Champion James Harley McCormick.
Seirawan began playing chess at 12; at 13, he became Washington junior champion. At 19, he won theWorld Junior Chess Championship. He also won a game againstViktor Korchnoi, who had two years earlier narrowly lost a match for the world championship. Impressed, Viktor then invited Seirawan to Switzerland, where Korchnoi was training for his1981 world title match againstAnatoly Karpov.[2]
Seirawan qualified for the 1985 and 1988-1990Candidates Tournaments. In the 1985 tournament in Montpellier he scored 7/15 placing joint 10th,[3] and in the1988–1990 tournament in St John, a knockout tournament, he was knocked out byJon Speelman in the preliminary round.
Seirawan was the highest rated American player on 19 monthly FIDE rating lists between July 1982 and January 2002.[4]
In 1990, he won a match againstJan Timman sponsored by KRO by the score of +3-1=2.
For 12 years, he was the chief editor of theInside Chess magazine.[5] The magazine was sold to theChessCafe.com website, on which old articles were featured.
In 1999, Seirawan played a ten-game match againstMichael Adams inBermuda. The match was drawn +2–2=6.[6]
In 2001, Seirawan released a plan called "Fresh Start" to reunite the chess world, which at that time had twoworld champions:Ruslan Ponomariov had gained the title under the auspices ofFIDE, whileVladimir Kramnik had beatenGarry Kasparov to take the Classical title. It called for one match between Ponomariov and Kasparov (the world number one), and another between Kramnik and the winner of the 2002 Einstein tournament inDortmund, who turned out to bePéter Lékó.[7] The winners of these matches would then play each other to become undisputed World Champion. This plan was signed by all parties on May 6, 2002, in the so-called "Prague Agreement". The Kramnik-Leko match took place (the match was drawn, with Kramnik retaining his title); the Kasparov-Ponomariov match was canceled in 2003, and this particular plan became moot when Kasparov retired in 2005. In the end, theFIDE World Chess Championship 2006 between Kramnik andVeselin Topalov reunited the world championship title.
Following a series of events, such as Seirawan participating in the Beijing Chess Challenge in September 2003,[8] there were reports that he would be retiring as a professional player. In the July 2007FIDE list, Seirawan had anElo rating of 2634, placing him in the top 100 chess players in the world, and America's number four, behindHikaru Nakamura,Gata Kamsky, andAlexander Onischuk. He played six games in the July 2007 FIDE update.[citation needed]
In 2007, Seirawan unveiled achess variant created in collaboration with Bruce Harper, calledSeirawan chess or SHARPER chess. SHARPER chess introduces two additional pieces, a "hawk" and an "elephant"—a rook/knight and a bishop/knight combination that in other variants are called theEmpress andPrincess, respectively. The initial position is that of standard chess. Whenever the player moves a piece from its starting position, one of the extra pieces in hand may be placed immediately on the square just vacated. Likewise, pawns maypromote to a hawk or an elephant in addition to the standard pieces. The first ever event was a 12-board simultaneous exhibition held on March 31, 2007, inVancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[9]
In May 2011, Seirawan returned from hiatus to competitive chess, playing for the U.S. team in the world team championship in China, where he won silver in first alternate. He had wins versus top GMsJudit Polgar andShakhriyar Mamedyarov.[10] He only lost one game.
Seirawan won the 2011 and 2012 Dutch Open Blitz championship.[11]
Seirawan is widely known for his expert commentary in live broadcasts on the Internet during important events. He has been named by the chess historianEdward Winter as one of the top five Internet broadcasters.[12] In 2019, he joined the Chessbrahs and provided coverage for the 2019 World Cup.
Seirawan has written several books.
The "Winning Chess" series (with co-authorIMJeremy Silman):
The "Winning Chess" series was originally published byMicrosoft Press; it is now published byEveryman Chess.
Seirawan is married toWoman FIDE Master Yvette Nagel, daughter of Dutch politicianJan Nagel.[13]
The chess openingSeirawan attack (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Bg5) is named after him. He is also known for the Seirawan line in theKing's Indian Defence (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bd3), where White has the plan of continuing with Nge2 and O-O.
| Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 1981–1983 (withWalter Browne) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 1986 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 1989 (withRoman Dzindzichashvili andStuart Rachels) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Chess Champion 2000–2001 (withJoel Benjamin andAlexander Shabalov) | Succeeded by |