Yasser Seirawan Himself Qualifies For Seirawan Chess Championship Final

Eight players have qualified for the Seirawan Chess Championship 2024 Knockout, the penultimate event of the Community Chess Championships. They are, in chronological order of when they qualified: Arian Rahimpour, IM Kacper Drozdowski, GM Mitrabha Guha, GM Yasser Seirawan (yes, that's right), GM Jeffery Xiong, GM Awonder Liang, GM Benjamin Bok, and IM Nhat Minh To.

The Knockout, with $600 going to the winner, begins on Friday, November 7, at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CET / 22:30 p.m. IST and will be streamed on Chess.com's Community Twitch page and YouTube page.

Qualifier Winners And Knockout Bracket

• What is Seirawan Chess?
• Seirawan Excels In His Own Variant. Shocker!

What is Seirawan Chess?

Seirawan Chess is the seventh variant introduced in the Community Chess Championships, a series that invites players of all levels, from beginner to grandmaster, to compete in nonstandard forms of chess. The tournaments happen once a month, and this was the penultimate one—all that's left after this is the Crazyhouse Championship in December.

Seirawan Chess, obviously invented by GM Seirawan himself (and FM Bruce Harper), can be thought of as a variant of another variant. That is, it's just like Capablanca Chess, another chess variant, except that it's played on a regular 8x8 chessboard, not a 10x8 board as the former world champion proposed. What's similar is that this variant has two extra pieces: the hawk and the elephant.

The hawk is a combination of bishop and knight. You can see below how the hawk, facing king and rook, can force checkmate.

The other special piece is the elephant. Watch how the elephant, without any help from the king, can win the black rook by force.

Jose Raul Capablanca added two more files to fit these new pieces, but Seirawan did not—holding true to the original dimensions of the game. Instead, when a player develops a piece, they can add the special pieces onto its original square. They can choose to do this immediately in the opening or, as some experts do, hold onto them for a more opportune moment later in the game.

Seirawan Excels In His Own Variant. Shocker!

There were eight qualifiers, all on Thursday, and each was a 75-minute arena with a 3+2 time control. The goal was to win as many games during the allotted time, and only first place qualified for the following day.

The lineup for this Final is stacked, as there is only one untitled player participating—next to two international masters and five grandmasters. But don't underestimate the untitled players in variants; Rahimpour scored higher than anyone else in the qualifiers with 89 points. He put up a 23-game winning streak, playing 25 games in total. 

The big story, of course, is that the creator of this variant will be playing in the Final on Friday. It took him two tries to make it. He shared with Chess.com that he arrived on time for qualifier three and won his first game—only to realize it was outside of the qualifier. He therefore entered late, and it was instead Mitrabha who won there, but Seirawan would redeem himself in qualifier four.

Yasser pulling up to the qualifiers like Karpov vs that one toddler on tv pic.twitter.com/bjvvpWIW1m

— Chess.com Community (@GreenPawns) November 7, 2024

Seirawan returned in the next qualifier and won it, five points ahead of a player who often does well in variants tournaments but wasn't able to qualify this time, GM Jose Martinez. He won 12/12 games he played in qualifier four. In his first win against Bok, Seirawan showed off the incredible forking power of a hawk: 32...Hf4+ forked the queen, so White resigned here.

In his penultimate game, also against Bok, Seirawan showed that piece values are a curious thing in this variant, as he traded his queen for Bok's elephant on f3. His pieces would soon unfurl for an attack...

A few moves later, he captured the hawk on c3 with his rook and began a combination that eliminated the opponent's defensive pieces: 19...Rxc3 20.Rxd6 Rxe3 21.Qxe3 Bxd6. You'll see down below, after several trades, that defenders around the white king were disappearing...

After the smoke cleared, White's queen was virtually alone in defending the king, and she also went on a brief vacation to the a7-square. It's no surprise that the lone white king was suddenly exposed to tactics.

After her snack, the queen returned to the d4-square, only to get forked in a few moves. You don't have to be the inventor of this variant to find 24...Nf3+!

25.gxf3 Hxf3+ forking the queen.

It's a fearsome field on Friday, and having a higher classical rating doesn't count for much when it comes to playing with elephants and hawks. Variants specialist and reigning Duck Chess Champion Minh To is a frequent guest in the Community Championships Finals, while Drozdowski (aka "Kacparov") scored a formidable 20-game winning streak out of 22 games played in total.

Being an exceptional chess player should, of course, count for something—and the strongest players in the field, by classical rating, are from the U.S. The highest classically-rated player is Liang (2687), as well as former 2700-player Xiong (2636), not to mention that Seirawan's classical rating is 2620 (though inactive since 2012). Bok (2593), who represents the Netherlands, also studied at Saint Louis University in Missouri.

Who will win the Knockout on Friday? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The Chess.com Seirawan Chess Championship is the seventh event of the Chess.com Community Championships series. The tournament will be decided with an eight-player double-elimination bracket. Each competitor qualified via one of eight, 75-minute arenas with a 3+2 time control.

Previous Coverage

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• Chess.com Community Championships Could See Repeat Winner
• Embrace The Darkness! Get Ready For The Chess.com Fog Of War Chess Championship
• Minh To Prevails In Duck Chess Championship
• Rosen, Minh To Join Duck Chess Experts in Finals
• Rubber Ducks And Madness In The Next Event Of The Chess.com Community Championships
• Comeback Kings Liang, Xiong Win Bughouse Championship
• Arjun, Nihal Take Aim At Two-Time Bughouse World Champions Liang, Xiong
• Tang Scores 71/80 In 6th Qualifier With Mysterious New Bughouse Partner
• Helmsknight, Vasquez Overcome Team Tang To Qualify On 3rd Attempt
• Xiong, Liang Win 50 Consecutive Games In Bughouse Championship Qualifier
• Moroni Claims Spell Chess Crown In Grand Final Reset
• Spell Chess Specialists Qualify For Knockout Ahead of Bok, Bortnyk, Hambleton
• Younger Brother Triumphs In Atomic Rivalry
• National Master Halts GM Martinez's Reign In Crazyhouse Championship
• Martinez Defends Variant Crown In 3 Check Chess
• Martinez Is King of The Hill In Variants Final
• Variants Community Series Results
• Variants Community Series: All The Information