Seirawan in Malaysia

Photo courtesy of ChessBase

Up against Seirawan
ChessBy QUAH SENG SUN

Pit your chess skills against one of the world’s best players.

WE ARE almost there. Just about a week away from the start of the Malaysian Chess Festival and there’s really good news for chess enthusiasts in the country, especially if you are already in Kuala Lumpur for the festival.

Apart from the Merdeka rapid open team tournament, the IGB Arthur Tan memorial Malaysia open chess championship, the AmBank chess challenge and the Merdeka open chess tournament, the organisers have thrown in one more big event: a simultaneous chess exhibition.

It’s not going to be just any chess exhibition but one by a visiting American chess grandmaster who is no stranger to Malaysian chess: Yasser Seirawan. He’ll be giving his simultaneous chess match on 30 boards at the Wilayah Complex in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 28. If you want to test your skill against a grandmaster who still ranks among the top 100 players in the world today, this is your chance.

Just call Malaysian Chess Federation secretary Gregory Lau (012-902 0123) to register. Participants will be required to pay a fee of RM50 for this rare opportunity.

Seirawan will also be involved in a closed clock simultaneous chess match on Aug 29 against the 12 winners of this year’s national age-group chess championship.

Personally, I feel the clock simul will be a much tougher test for Seirawan. All the games will be played with chess clocks and he’ll have the same amount of time as each of his opponents. What this means is that he will be forced to play 12 times as fast as his opponents.

I’m sure a super-level grandmaster like him will be able to cope superlatively with the chess clocks. Normally, grandmasters will only agree to six simultaneous clock games, maybe eight at the most. Believe you me, it can really be very taxing for the simul giver!

Here is the full article.