Yasser Seirawan
| Yasser Seirawan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Country | United States |
| Born |
March 24, 1960 Damascus, Syria |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2620 (March 2017) |
| Peak rating | 2658 (November 2011) |
Yasser Seirawan (Arabic: ياسر سيروان; born March 24, 1960) is a chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He was winner of the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author and commentator.
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 emigrated to Seattle (United States), where he attended Queen Anne Elementary School, Meany Middle School and Garfield High School, and honed his game at a (now-defunct) coffeehouse, the Last Exit on Brooklyn, playing against the likes of Latvian-born master Viktors Pupols and six-time Washington State Champion James Harley McCormick.
He is married to Woman FIDE Master Yvette Nagel, daughter of former Leefbaar Nederland political party president and politician Jan Nagel.
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 then invited Seirawan to Switzerland, where Korchnoi was training for his 1981 world title match against Anatoly Karpov.
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