Yasser Seirawan Simul in Kuala Lumpur (2003)

The hopeless player in red circle is...me!

US GM Yasser Seirawan visit Malaysia in 2003 for a simultaneous display in Kuala Lumpur. I took part on the simul and were beaten quite convincingly by the GM. I don't remember the full result but Yasser didn't lost a single game and he concead one or two draws from approximately 25 players. Among others participants is Mohd Saprin Sabri, Aziz Shukor, Shamsul Bahrin, Anas Nazreen....etc



There is also a question & answer session after the simul. Yasser tell a few stories about Bobby Fischer, his (Yasser) victories over World Champion - Gary Kasparov in 1986 Dubai Olympiad and others interesting stories. I my self ask him one interesting question about the use of chess playing software too help chess player to improve his/her games. Yasser answer that the used of the chess software has drastically improve younger chess player to be GM and a strong player at early age compare then before.

A few funny thing i witness during the simul was Yasser prefer Coke then mineral water for a drink. He like to tell stories...when he tell about his victory over Kasparov in Dubai Olympiad , he said that the other day local newspaper headlines said that " Arab beat Russia ". The locals embraced him as an Arabian and followed his games voraciously. The moves of their game were being put on a giant 4x4 meter chess board so an audience of several thousand could watch the game. Garry and Yasser got into a time scramble in the second time control and the poor board boy who was moving the giant chess pieces was having a difficult time. Finally, the time control was reached and the fellow could catch up. When it became obvious that Yasser was going to win, a spontaneous roar of 'La, la, la' went throughout the hall. (Think of the Arabs attacking the Turkish trains in Lawrence of Arabia.)

Yasser Seirawan - Garry Kasparov [D91]
Dubai Olympiad, 1986

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg5 Ne4 6.cxd5 Nxg5 7.Nxg5 e6 8.Nf3 exd5 9.b4 Qd6 10.a3 0–0 11.e3 c6 12.Be2 Bf5 13.0–0 Nd7 14.Na4 a5 15.Qb3 b5 16.Nc5 a4 17.Qc3 Nb6 18.Nd2 Rae8 19.Rfe1 Re7 20.Bf3 Rfe8 21.g3 Bh3 22.Bg2 Bxg2 23.Kxg2 f5 24.h4 Nc4 25.Nf3 Bf6 26.Re2 Rg7 27.Rh1 Qe7 28.Ree1 h6 29.Qd3 Rf8 30.Nd2 Qe8 31.Nxc4 dxc4 32.Qd1 Re7 33.Ref1 Qf7 34.Qf3 Qd5 35.Qxd5+ cxd5 36.Kf3 Bg7 37.Rd1 Rff7 38.Rd2 Re8 39.Rdd1 Bf8 40.Rdg1 Bg7 41.Rd1 Kf8 42.Rd2 Ke7 43.Rdd1 Kd6 44.Rh2 Kc6 45.Rhh1 Bf8 46.Rd2 Bd6 47.Rdd1 Bxc5 48.dxc5 Re4 49.Rhe1 Rd7 50.Rd4 g5 51.hxg5 hxg5 52.Red1 Rxd4 53.Rxd4 Rh7 54.Ke2 Rh3

55.g4 !! f4 56.exf4 Rxa3 57.fxg5 Ra2+ 58.Kf3 c3 59.Rd1 d4 60.g6 d3 61.Ke3 Rxf2 62.g7 1–0

Photo by Lim Tse Pin