Learning How to Attack

Another great chess lesson by GM Yasser Seirawan.

I was born in Damascus in 1960. My father is Syrian and my mother English. When I was two years old, we moved to England; in 1967 we moved again, this time to the United States. We settled first in Seattle, Washington, then moved to the warmer climate of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and finally settled back in Seattle in 1972.

While in Virginia Beach, I got used to playing sports on fine, sunny days. The typical cold and rainy days of Seattle made me stir-crazy. When a neighbor offered to teach me chess, I jumped at the chance: anything to relieve the boredom of those long, wet evenings.

Those first chess lessons soon led me to the legendary Last Exit on Brooklyn coffee house, a chess haven where an unlikely bunch of unusual people congregates to do battle. There, I learned the ropes. When I got used to one player’s crazed attacking style, I would sit down with a defensive player and force myself to learn to attack. This training paid off, and I quickly increased my skills.

After playing in tournaments for a few years, I finally became a master in 1977. I won the U.S. Junior Championship in 1978 and the World Junior Championship in 1979. With that victory (and the International Master title that came with it), I started receiving a steady stream of invitations to international events.

After tournaments in Sweden, England, and Holland, I was awarded the International Grandmaster title (the highest title other than World Champion) in 1980. At that time, I was the third youngest person in history to have received this title. Since that time, I have traveled to every corner of the world and my interest in chess has paid great dividends. With such feathers as the U.S. Chess Championship in my cap, I became the second American since Bobby Fischer to qualify for the World Championship matches.

— Seirawan, Yasser. “Play Winning Chess”