Editing Yasser Seirawan

{{short description|American chess grandmaster (born 1960)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox chess player
| name = Yasser Seirawan
| image = Seirawan0301 137.jpg
| caption = Seirawan at the 2003 United States Chess Championship
| birthname = 
| country = United States
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1960|3|24}}
| birth_place = [[Damascus]], [[Syria]]
| title = [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] (1980)
| rating = 
| peakrating = 2658 (November 2011)
| peakranking = No. 10 (July 1990)
| FideID = 2000032
}}

'''Yasser Seirawan''' ({{langx|ar|ياسر سيروان}}; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American [[chess]] [[Grandmaster (chess)|grandmaster]] and four-time [[United States Chess Championship|United States champion]]. He won the [[World Junior Chess Championship]] in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author and commentator.

==Early life==
Seirawan was born in [[Damascus]], [[Syria]]. His father was Syrian and his mother an English nurse from [[Nottingham]], where he spent some time in his early childhood. When he was seven, his family immigrated to [[Seattle, Washington]], where he attended Queen Anne Elementary School, [[Edmond S. Meany Middle School|Meany Middle School]], and [[Garfield High School (Seattle, Washington)|Garfield High School]]. He honed his game at a now-defunct coffeehouse, the [[Last Exit on Brooklyn]],<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Nack |first=William |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125097/1/index.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220171228/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125097/1/index.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 20, 2012 |title=Yasser, That's My Baby |page=3 |magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]] |date=December 21, 1981}}</ref> playing against the likes of [[Latvia]]n-born master [[Viktors Pupols]] and six-time [[Washington (state)|Washington]] State Champion James Harley McCormick.

== Career ==
Seirawan began playing chess at 12; at 13, he became Washington junior champion. At 19, he won the [[World Junior Chess Championship]]. He also won a game against [[Viktor 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 his [[World Chess Championship 1981|1981 world title match]] against [[Anatoly Karpov]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=William |last=Tracy |url=http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199002/the.right.moves.htm |journal=Saudi Aramco World |volume=41 |number=2 |date=March–April 1990 |title=The Right Moves |access-date=2005-11-06 |archive-date=2012-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716222155/http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199002/the.right.moves.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Seirawan qualified for the 1985 and 1988-1990 [[Candidates Tournament]]s. In the 1985 tournament in Montpellier he scored 7/15 placing joint 10th,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=83304|title = Montpellier Candidates (1985)}}</ref> and in the [[World Chess Championship 1990#1988–90 Candidates Tournament|1988–1990 tournament in St John]], a knockout tournament, he was knocked out by [[Jon Speelman]] in the preliminary round.

Seirawan was the highest rated American player on 19 monthly FIDE rating lists between July 1982 and January 2002.<ref>https://2700chess.com/top50-for-any-month</ref>


In 1990, he won a match against [[Jan Timman]] sponsored by KRO by the score of +3-1=2.

For 12 years, he was the chief editor of the ''Inside Chess'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldchesshof.org/exhibitions/project/lecture-series-with-yasser-seirawan/ |title=GM Yasser Seirawan Lecture Series |date=April 9, 2013 |work=World Chess Hall of Fame}}</ref> The magazine was sold to the [[ChessCafe.com]] website, on which old articles were featured.

In 1999, Seirawan played a ten-game match against [[Michael Adams (chess player)|Michael Adams]] in [[Bermuda]]. The match was drawn +2–2=6.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Crowther |first=Mark |date=February 8, 1999 |title=TWIC 222: Adams-Seirawan in Bermuda|url=http://theweekinchess.com/html/twic222.html#6|publisher=The Week in Chess|access-date=January 25, 2016}}</ref>

In 2001, Seirawan released a plan called "Fresh Start" to reunite the chess world, which at that time had two [[World Chess Championship|world champions]]: [[Ruslan Ponomariov]] had gained the title under the auspices of [[Fédération Internationale des Échecs|FIDE]], while [[Vladimir Kramnik]] had beaten [[Garry 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 in [[Dortmund]], who turned out to be [[Péter Lékó]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Yasser |last=Seirawan |title=A Fresh Start for chess |url=http://en.chessbase.com/post/yaer-seirawan-proposes-i-a-fresh-start-i-for-che |website=ChessBase |date=March 2, 2002 |access-date=January 23, 2015}}</ref> 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, the [[FIDE World Chess Championship 2006]] between Kramnik and [[Veselin Topalov]] reunited the world championship title.

Following a series of events, such as Seirawan participating in the Beijing Chess Challenge in September 2003,<ref>{{Cite web|date=2003-09-28|title=The Beijing Chess Challenge|url=https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-beijing-che-challenge|access-date=2021-08-30|website=Chess News|language=en}}</ref> there were reports that he would be retiring as a professional player. In the July 2007 [[FIDE]] list, Seirawan had an [[Elo rating]] of 2634, placing him in the top 100 chess players in the world, and America's number four, behind [[Hikaru Nakamura]], [[Gata Kamsky]], and [[Alexander Onischuk]]. He played six games in the July 2007 FIDE update.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

In 2007, Seirawan unveiled a [[chess variant]] created in collaboration with Bruce Harper, called [[Seirawan 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 the [[Empress (chess)|Empress]] and [[Princess (chess)|Princess]], 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 may [[promotion (chess)|promote]] 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, in [[Vancouver]], British Columbia, Canada.<ref>{{Cite web|title=First Ever Seirawan Chess Event!|url=http://nwchess.com/articles/events/2007/Seirawan_simul.htm|access-date=2021-08-30|website=nwchess.com}}</ref>

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 GMs [[Judit Polgar]] and [[Shakhriyar Mamedyarov]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chess-results.com/tnr53136.aspx?art=9&lan=1&snr=38 |title=Yinzhou Cup 2011 World ChessTeam Championship – Player Info: Seirawan Yasser|website=Chess-Results.com |access-date=July 27, 2011}}</ref> He only lost one game.

Seirawan won the 2011 and 2012 Dutch Open Blitz championship.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.snelschaakmarathon.nl/SSM2011/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=151&Itemid=98 |title=Hall of fame (list of winners Dutch Open Blitzchess championship) |work=Snelschaakmarathon.nl |access-date=2013-03-24 |archive-date=2021-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414205437/http://www.snelschaakmarathon.nl/SSM2011/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=151&Itemid=98 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Seirawan is widely known for his expert commentary in live broadcasts on the Internet during important events. He has been named by the chess historian [[Edward Winter (chess historian)|Edward Winter]] as one of the top five Internet broadcasters.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chesshistory.com/winter/winter127.html#9085._Live_chess_broadcasts_on |first=Edward |last=Winter |title=9085. Live chess broadcasts on the Internet |work=Chess Notes}}</ref> In 2019, he joined the Chessbrahs and provided coverage for the 2019 World Cup.

== Books ==
Seirawan has written several books.

The "Winning Chess" series (with co-author [[International Master|IM]] [[Jeremy Silman]]):

*''Play Winning Chess'' - Introduction to chess and some basic strategies
*''Winning Chess Tactics'' - Introduction to tactics with puzzles
*''Winning Chess Strategies'' - How to use small advantages and use strategies to gain them
*''Winning Chess Openings'' - Brief descriptions of the most popular openings, and opening strategies
*''Winning Chess Endings'' - Introduction to the endgame
*''Winning Chess Brilliancies'' - Notable games analyzed by the author
*''Winning Chess Combinations'' - How to recognize the main combination patterns; somewhat of a follow-up to ''Winning Chess Tactics''

The "Winning Chess" series was originally published by [[Microsoft Press]]; it is now published by [[Everyman Chess]].

*''Five Crowns: Kasparov-Karpov World Chess Championship 1990 New York - Lyon'' (with Jonathan Tisdall), International chess Enterprises, 1991. {{ISBN|978-1879479029}}
*''Take My Rooks'' (with Nikolay Minev), International Chess Enterprises, 1991. {{ISBN|978-1879479012}}
*''No Regrets • Fischer–Spassky 1992'' (with George Stefanovic), International Chess Enterprises, 1992, {{ISBN|1-879479-09-5}}
*''Chess on the Edge'' (with Bruce Harper) - collected games of Grandmaster [[Duncan Suttles]], published by [[Chess'n Math Association]] in March 2008.
* ''Chess Duels: My Games with the World Champions'', [[Everyman Chess]], 2010, {{ISBN|978-1857445879}}

== Personal life ==
Seirawan is married to [[Woman FIDE Master]] Yvette Nagel, daughter of Dutch politician [[Jan Nagel]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Matnadze|first=Anna|author-link=Ana Matnadze|date=October 28, 2011|title=Interview with Yasser Seirawan|website=Chessdom|url=http://www.chessdom.com/interview-with-yasser-seirawan|url-status=dead|access-date=October 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821055532/http://www.chessdom.com/interview-with-yasser-seirawan/|archive-date=August 21, 2013}}</ref>

== Legacy ==

The chess opening [[Seirawan attack]] (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Bg5) is named after him. He is also known for the Seirawan line in the [[King's Indian Defence]] (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bd3), where White has the plan of playing Bd3, Nge2, and O-O.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite news |last=Roberts |first=Gregory |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/local/53957_chess10.shtml |title=Chess champ Seirawan has all the right moves |work=[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]] |date=January 10, 2002}}
*{{cite news |author=Uncredited |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2ZZUAAAAIBAJ&dq=yasser-seirawan%20last-exit&pg=6499%2C9020014 |title=Seattle chess player breathes life into musty world sport |work=[[Ellensburg Daily Record]] |date=December 31, 1982}}

== External links ==
* {{FIDE}}
* {{USCF|10509459}}
* {{Chessgames.com player|14075}}
* {{365Chess.com player|Yasser_Seirawan}}
* {{OlimpBase player|lzpftltg}}
* {{Chess.com player|yasser-seirawan|member=GMYAZ}}
* [http://www.seirawanchess.com Seirawan Chess] Enhanced Chess Devised by Yasser Seirawan in 2007
* [http://www.gmsquare.com/interviews/seirawan2.html Interview with Yasser Seirawan] by [[Mikhail Golubev]] for GrandMaster Square
* [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVWaFpMwtaGiVZ77NhhvGGGzvF7oFSWcA Lectures by GM Yasser Seirawan at the St. Louis Chess Club]

{{S-start}}
{{Succession box
| before=[[Walter Browne]], [[Larry Evans (chess grandmaster)|Larry Evans]], and [[Larry Christiansen]]|
| title=[[United States Chess Championship|United States Chess Champion]]|
| years=1981&ndash;1983 (with [[Walter Browne]])|
| after=[[Walter Browne]], [[Larry Christiansen]], and [[Roman Dzindzichashvili]]
}}
{{Succession box
| before=[[Lev Alburt]]
| title=[[United States Chess Championship|United States Chess Champion]]
| years=1986
| after=[[Nick de Firmian]] and [[Joel Benjamin]]
}}
{{Succession box
| before=[[Michael Wilder]]
| title=[[United States Chess Championship|United States Chess Champion]]
| years=1989 (with [[Roman Dzindzichashvili]] and [[Stuart Rachels]])
| after=[[Lev Alburt]]
}}
{{Succession box
| before=[[Boris Gulko]]
| title=[[United States Chess Championship|United States Chess Champion]]
| years=2000&ndash;2001 (with [[Joel Benjamin]] and [[Alexander Shabalov]])
| after=[[Larry Christiansen]]
}}
{{S-end}}

{{Chess variants}}
{{Authority control}}
{{American chess grandmasters}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seirawan, Yasser}}
[[Category:1960 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Chess Grandmasters]]
[[Category:American chess players]]
[[Category:American chess writers]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:World Junior Chess Champions]]
[[Category:Chess Olympiad competitors]]
[[Category:Chess variant inventors]]
[[Category:Garfield High School (Seattle) alumni]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Damascus]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:Syrian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Syrian people of English descent]]
[[Category:Chess players from Seattle]]