18th September, 2003

THE Kings and Queens tournament in Beijing was won by the partnership of

Nigel Short and Zhao Xue, who went through the novel event undefeated to

take the title a full point ahead of their nearest rivals, Yasser

Seirawan and Zhu Chen.

The players now revert to more normal chess by moving on to Ji Nan in

China, for an individual Battle of the Sexes encounter in the Three

Arrows Cup. The present mini tour of China also sadly marks the

retirement from tournament play of one of the game's greatest

ambassadors, former U.S. Champion Yasser Seirawan.

In 1979, "Yaz" won the World Junior title and for many years thereafter

was the top-rated American on the world chess scene, and the first since

Bobby Fischer to reach the Candidates cycle. He won three U.S.

Championship titles, was a powerhouse for the U.S. team in 10 Olympiads

and was one of the few players to defeat both Anatoly Karpov and Garry

Kasparov while they were in their prime as world champions.

Yet, despite his distinguished career as a player, he'll perhaps be best

remembered as being the architect of the Prague Agreement - a deal which

so nearly brought unity and sanity to the oft-fragmented chess world.

The sadness of his retirement at the early age of 43 is only tempered by

the fact that he is likely to devote more time and resources to his

unique skills off the board as a diplomat and chess promoter.

Final Standings: 1 Nigel Short (England) / Zhao Xue (China) 4; 2 Yasser

Seirawan (USA) / Zhu Chen (China) 3; 3-4 Ye Jiangchuan (China) / Xu

Yuhua (China), Evgeny Bareev (Russia) / Xie Jun (China) 2.5.

Zhu Chen/Y Seirawan - Xie Jun/E Bareev

Kings and Queens, (2)

King's Indian Def

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Bd3 0-0 6 Nge2 Nc6 7 0-0 e5 8 d5

Nd4 9 Be3 Ng4 10 Bxd4 exd4 11 Nb5 c5 12 h3 Ne5 13 f4 Nxd3 14 Qxd3 f5 15

Ng3 fxe4 16 Nxe4 Bf5 17 Rae1 a6 18 Na3 Qh4 19 Nb1 g5 20 Nbd2 gxf4 21 Qb3

Rae8 22 Qxb7 d3 23 Nf3 Qxe1 24 Rxe1 Bxe4 25 Ng5 f3 26 gxf3 Bd4+ 27 Kh2

Be5+ 28 Kg2 Bf5 29 Ne6 Bxe6 30 dxe6 d2 31 Rd1 Bf4 32 Qd7 Kh8 33 Kf2 Rg8

34 h4 a5 35 Ke2 Rd8 36 Qe7 Rdf8 37 Qd7 Rd8 38 Qe7 Rdf8 39 Rg1 Rf5 40

Rxg8+ Kxg8 41 Kd1 Bh6 42 Qd8+ Kg7 43 Qd7+ 1-0